Do These Feathers Make Me Look Fat II?

“Do These Feathers Make Me Look Fat II?”   6” x 6”     Pastel    $50    © Sharon Lewis

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            This is the second version of a painting I did several years ago. Right outside the window of my home office/studio is a tall bush that’s serves as a staging platform for birds visiting the feeder attached to my window. It’s easy to spot the male goldfinches this time of year, for they’re arrayed in their bright yellow plumage. These are small, usually very slender birds who on very cold days, puff up their feathers so much that they look like many of us after too much holiday eating.

            Happy Weekend!

Sentinel

“Sentinel”             Pastel                12” x 12”              $175                  © Sharon Lewis
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                 This painting is based on photos I took while traveling on Runde, an island off the coast of Alesunde, Norway. I was hoping for some great photos of interesting scenery but when we arrived, the island was shrouded in fog. Luckily, after a short hike, the fog started lifting and I was able to get this beautiful bird standing on a small seaweed covered mound standing watch.

It’s the Last Day of 2014!

“Quietly Beautiful”      Pastel    2.5” x 3.5”    $20      © Sharon Lewis
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            Female cardinals are often described as being a dull brown color. I think they are in fact often, quietly or subtly beautiful. I think some of the art I admire most is subtly beautiful as well. Don’t get me wrong; I love striking color in some art. However, if I think of the artists I have long admired such as Winslow Homer, Vermeer, Bierstadt, Mary Cassatt, I think of subtly beautiful work.

I think that they have so ingeniously woven their skill into the fabric of their art that they draw you in, fascinated by the image before you, and only later do you appreciate the great skill that produced that magnificent piece.

            I hope some day to produce art like that….maybe in 2015?

I hope that wherever you are, that you celebrate the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one with the warmth of family and friends and perhaps some quiet beauty.

A Sense of Wonderment

“Small Wonders”    8” x 10”    Pastel   $75       © Sharon Lewis
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           I have a friend in Florida who has been posting great photos on FB of young Sandhill cranes called colts and another friend here in Georgia who’s posted photos of a fledgling robin she discovered in a bush next to her house. Of course my first reaction is  “Awww, they’re so cute” and then I’m back to finishing what I need to do. However, when I looked at the painting I had decided to post today I started to remember how I looked at bird’s eggs when I was a child.

            I remember when I was little, finding a robin’s egg like the ones in today’s painting and holding it in my hand with this tremendous sense of wonder. I thought the egg was so beautiful but I couldn’t figure out how a bird could be inside of it. When I look at robins’ eggs even today I’m reminded of that sense of wonderment.

            As I struggled to capture the rough texture of the bird’s nest, the smooth surface of the eggs, and that beautiful turquoise color, I was reminded of that wonder. I’m also grateful to have observant, generous friends who are willing to share these small wonders with me.

Into the Distance

"Into the Distance"       8” x 10”    Pastel      $75    © Sharon Lewis
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            It was a beautiful, sunny and breezy, spring day in Palm Coast, Florida, a city on the east coast, south of Jacksonville. We had gone for a long walk on the beach and seen some really funny looking birds that looked like they had bad mullet hair cuts (are there good mullets?). I looked them up in my bird book and discovered they were not gulls as I originally thought but sandwich terns. There were also some really cute smaller birds with skinny legs that I think are snowy plovers. That day I was also lucky to catch a beautiful setting sun behind me reflecting on the clouds in front of me. This painting shows the reflected light on the clouds and the flight of two terns with bad hair cuts heading into the distance.

            Happy Weekend!

Only Memories of Snow

“Cardinal in the Snow”    8” x 10”   Pastel    $75   © Sharon Lewis
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            It’s a beautiful, spring day in the Atlanta area. I had plenty of time to remind myself to be grateful for this weather as I sat in Atlanta traffic for two hours this afternoon. At least if the major highway I was on had turned into a parking lot I had great views of all of the blooming trees and bushes. I saw white fluffy pear trees, purplish-pink tulip trees (which I found out are really a type of magnolia tree), and beautiful, pink, flowering cherry trees. These colors are so welcome against the backdrop of grays and browns that are the holdovers of winter. It reminded me of this cardinal I photographed against the grey, purple and brown background of winter. It provided such a cheerful, colorful sight that I had to paint him !
            I hope wherever you are, that you are enjoying the beginnings of spring.

            Happy Weekend!
   

Do These Feathers Make Me Look Fat?

“Do These Feathers Make Me Look Fat?”   6” x 6”   Pastel    $40    © Sharon Lewis
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            Today’s painting is of a goldfinch that has fluffed up its feathers so that it looks three times its normal size. At first I thought it was a fledgling since they often have this kind of cute, roly-poly look, but I think it’s simply an adult trying to retain some body heat on a very cold day. I based the painting on photos I took during our last snow and ice storm when the birds were almost continually flying from a nearby bush to my window-mounted feeder.

            To me the goldfinch, with its sunny, yellow feathers is an especially beautiful bird to see on a gray, wintry day. In addition they have such a cheerful song or call (click here to listen to one)

            I’ve noticed that even though goldfinches are supposedly territorial only during nest construction, they are one of the few species that don’t share nicely at the feeder. In spite of the fact that they are typically one of the more slender birds, they squawk and peck away almost all of the other birds. This one though is just plain adorable!

Enjoy and have a happy weekend!