Painting Birds

Beauty and perspective

I enjoy painting birds of all types. This is a painting (oil or canvas) of a Hawk that I glimpsed on a limb while walking my dog a few weeks back. I love the majesty and calm on display that I suppose comes from being an apex predator.

One thing I love about painting is that you can have second (and third, fourth, etc) chances. A painting can sit around and you can later revisit it and change it—or not. There is no pressure if you do not apply it yourself. I went back to this hawk and added color to the background sky and a few other tweaks. Not sure which I like best.

When I was an adolescent and teen living with my Grandparents in Greene County, NC harvesting Tobacco in the summers, I used to look up and imagine what the Hawk saw. There are numerous Hawks around where I live and especially on Duke University’s golf course, and looking up and seeing Hawks soar reinforces their beauty and strength, and it also reminds me of my Granddaddy for some reason.

Trying to imagine things that you have not seen yourself, is difficult, but it is good practice I think. Below is a painting (acrylic on canvas) of what I imagine a Hawk might see as they soar above a wetland meeting a river as it nears the sea.

Try and imagine something that you have never seen this week.

Don Taylor