Conversations in Avian Art and Ornithology

Hummer GV-E, Green Violet-ear Hummingbird   I have spent a great deal of time working closely with birds as a biologist.  Most of the time I was not in a position to photograph the birds.  Conducting educational programs with an eagle, hawk, owl, vulture, raven or falcon on my gloved arm make it hard for me to take a snap shot of the bird.  Equally difficult is getting that perfect shot of a bird in the field doing an interesting behavior when I am busy counting the number of birds and identifying their species during a survey of a certain area in a [...]

I am up before the light to collect the group I am guiding.  When there is enough light to see color, the crazy onslaught of tracking down a specific song in the cacophony of the dawn chorus or following the zip of movement from my peripheral view begins.  I see the bird and raise my binoculars.  First things first, I have a second or two to identify the exotic bird, then I have to try to get as many of my group to find it in the bush or tree ahead of us.  Another flit whizzes by and I am off [...]

A cardinal sin of a field biologist or animal trainer is to anthropomorphize their interpretations of their subject as having human emotions or personalities.  I spent my career as a biology and bird trainer trying to evaluate bird behaviors objectively, based on motivations driven by survival, like the fight or flight response, and leaving any emotions out of the equation.  It is only now that science is finding the animal kingdom, especially birds, do possess traits, behaviors and intelligence we thought previously as only human.   More than a few times I have heard people describe my ability to portray birds in a [...]

I received a phone call one day from a woman asking if I had a Bohemian Waxwing painting.  She told me that a friend of hers had visited my studio during the Orcas Island Artist’s Studio Tour, and had picked up my business postcard and sent it to her.  After visiting my website, she decided to call.  I told her that I had not painted a Bohemian Waxwing, but was thinking about painting Cedar Waxwings.  A few years back, I had raised a clutch of baby waxwings.  They now come back to our yard every year to eat our raspberries and [...]

Sketching is not one of my strengths.  It seems I do not have the patience to sketch.  I tend to want to get right to the painting stage.  With my transparent oil painting technique, I prefer to layer my shadows with undertones and remove a little paint here and there to create the highlights and reflective light as I develop form and texture.  I guess it is a bit like sketching, but in slow motion since I need drying time between each layer.  As shown in Hawk Eyes,  the “sketch” is a simple line drawing, often traced from my reference photo [...]