Sandhill Cranes

I managed to take photos of my sandhill crane paintings this morning, the portraits are posted on my art blog,  click on image in right sidebar to see all three portraits.

A parent lesser sandhill crane bringing swamp vole lunch to junior, mmm tasty treat. We watched the parents attentively bring food to the youngster. They would bring food and place it gently a couple of feet away then watch to see that the youngster took it. I had never seen wild sandhill cranes before so it was quite a treat. I fell in love with these small 3 feet tall birds. I painted six paintings of them in January, three portraits, two full single parent birds on brilliant color backgrounds and this one. January has been a good month.

I read that the sandhill crane is like the dinosaur of birds in that its been around a long time. Sadly industrialization and devastation of habitat has affected all the various world crane populations with the sandhill seeming to be the most adaptive and holding it own to the point of nesting in busy areas close to man. These ones nested at Reifiel Sanctuary in Delta BC. The Whooping crane does not fair as well and the only wild place it nests is in Wood Buffalo National Park in the far north of Alberta and does not nest if disturbed by man. I want to paint a whooping crane soon as well, though I have not yet had the opportunity to watch them in the wild. I do have a few zoo bird photos that maybe usable.

Lunchtime: Sandhill Cranes
Acrylic painting on 16x20 inch canvas painted right around the sides so no need for expensive framing.

The King and his fine crown

The King's Crown

This wee fella finally received his crown as the finishing touch to this painting. He's a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. A gorgeous little bird that is only about 4 inches. I have to admit that credit is due to Gerald who graciously took the Kinglets photo with my camera. Last fall we were out and about I was in way too much pain from a headache to even hold the camera up, let alone focus in. So I told Gerald to shoot and shoot he did. He captured one wonderful shot that shows the tiny wee red crown just peeking through. As soon as I saw the image I knew I would paint it. It was fall, the birds were migrating south and the foliage was tinged orange so to keep that autumnal feel I boldly washed the background. Initially I was going to paint in foliage but have now decided I like the simplicity of the bold colorfield. It is after all a portrait of a king; need I say more.

A new one started with a bright bold yellow as a ground. Yesterday I was back playing in the paint and started the suggestions of shrubbery. I not to sure yet which direction it will take, either detailed or abstracted. This is basically how my acrylic paintings start, rough and loose. I continue to refine and detail as each layer progresses. There are many layers to my paintings whether I paint with acrylic or watercolor so it is a lengthy process. I also roughed in a Raven on canvas last night as well; looks like I am back into the swing of wielding the paint brush.

Doing the little sketches yesterday while I relaxed with my coffee was quite enjoyable so today I decided  to start the day with bird studies. Once again using watercolor pencils, I only have a small set, not enough to note accurate color, but enough to give a cheerfulness to my roughs. I like the process of washing the water over the pencil strokes after the drawing is done. It reminds me of those magic paint books you can get that are pre-colored so that when a wash of water is painted over the page the color springs to life. Fun, relaxing, dare I say almost meditative.

Westlands Art Gallery

These cheerful  and bright paintings were sent to Westlands Art Gallery in Cochrane, AB last month and I am happy to say that the Goldfinch is no longer available.

The Savannah Sparrow below is available, it may be purchased through Westlands Art Gallery in Cochrane, AB.
Savannah Sparrow, acrylic on 12x12 canvas.