I wanted to paint yellow.  And I had an image of an American Goldfinch that I have been trying to use for a long time.  But I knew I needed something else to make the bird image work with the yellow square.  I think I came up with the children's blocks as a way of linking the little bird with a human experience.  I always seem to be looking for ways to connect the birds I care about to the world that we live in.

This is the first of a series.  I have four more colors I would like to paint.

Colors

Early this spring, while waiting at the doctor's office, I had a bit of an inspiration looking at a Richard Serra drawings in an old New Yorker.  The drawing was a black irregular four sided shape on an off-white background.  My mind jumped to a bright colored background, and the irregular shape became a rectangle.  The idea of actually getting some bright color into my work was really thrilling.  I got some old cardboard and set about painting all kinds of squares, using first a watercolor brush, then a paint roller until I got the right effect.

Being me, I saw a bird in the middle of it all, but first had to get the right feeling to the border.

Nuthatches in Pepper Tree

A few years ago, I began painting two Red-breasted Nuthatches that were visiting our yard. I have always been drawn to the master Japanese woodblock artists of the 17-1800's, particularly Hokusai's prints of Nature. The Nuthatches felt like a perfect subject to try this kind of approach. It turned out to be a long, somewhat frustrating experiment. I began three different paintings, and never felt satisfied enough to complete any of them.

Just this past year, I took a fresh look at these paintings. I cut the first one into two smaller works that I then finished in oil. You can see them on a previous blog--Nuthatches #1 and #2. The second is this painting. I pulled out my gouache (as that was the medium I used when I started it) and was able to complete it. Sometimes, I just need the space that time brings to look at a piece in a new way.

Fly away

Finally finished.

In several of my recent paintings, the clouds are as much the focus as the bird. And the clouds seem to carry their emotions as much as the birds. This one has made me happy. The Great Egret ascends, and it feels like she is traveling home.

Work in Progress

Since I'm working on one of my long term paintings, I wanted to post "in progress". Otherwise, you would see nothing from me until March. I've been working since November on this painting, and for me, it is really moving quickly. It's about 12 1/2" x 19".

Clouds have been my major focus all year. I have volumes of photos now. I took this cloud photo on a trip to Oregon, and finally found the right bird. I had this idea in mind for quite a while. A lone Great Egret flying in a threatening sky. Flying home, trying to make it there before the storm hits. Or maybe the storm has already hit, and the bird had to wait it out somewhere, and is now on her way again.

I think about the birds when it is storming outside. We are warm in our homes--how do they survive through the harsh winter?