Seabird Series 8

6x6 Oil on Museum Quality Panel

I've learned a great deal this week from painting in a series.  You become very familiar and comfortable with your subject.  In this case, the color pallette has been fairly narrow for good emphasis on values.  I think each one gets a bit better as I go.  I am more willing to experiment once comfortable with the approach and subject.  The compositional framework has shifted to a closer viewpoint.  It has been fun  to paint each one and I am far more relaxed than when I approached the first bird in flight.  When I finished taking photos of these birds on the beach, they all quickly clustered in a frenzy around another woman on the beach - one whom they knew well because she had bread and because it seems this area of the beach is her home at night.  I think of her when I paint the seabirds and wonder what happened in her life to bring her to this place.  I am grateful and blessed, and humbled.