Angel

Angel. Oil on panel, 6" x 6". ©2019.

Angel might be the friendliest goose living at River's Wish Animal Sanctuary. He suffers from a malady known as "angel wing," which causes the wings to twist at the wrist and protrude at an odd angle, often with underdeveloped feathers. Angel came to River's Wish when his person died, and now has a permanent home at the shelter.

While I attempted to photograph Angel, he was all about sitting on my lap. Eventually, I gave up getting a regular photo and tried a video instead. I helped him climb up onto my legs as I kneeled in the pen, and he immediately busied himself with nipping at my arm. Meanwhile, a few feet away, a red-faced, apoplectic duck plotted my demise. Angel spotted the duck, jumped off my lap, ran across the pen, and literally goosed him. It was brilliant. That duck had it coming.

Here's a time-lapse video of the painting process.

This guy.

Petunia

Petunia. Oil on board, 6" x 6". ©2019.

Petunia came to spend her life at River's Wish after it was spared by a kind family—she was previously destined to become a Thanksgiving dinner. It is both mind-blowing and heartbreaking to think of the millions of turkeys who are not so lucky. But Petunia serves as an ambassador for her kind, showing that turkeys can be loving and sweet (not meat).

She will be featured in the River's Wish benefit show at Kolva-Sullivan Gallery in September. I see a much larger version of this painting in my future!

Here is a time-lapse video of the painting process.

Badass

Badass. Oil on panel, 6" x 6". ©2019.

I'd never seen a pileated woodpecker in my life, until about two weeks ago. Now I've seen three.
This guy was digging around in some leaves on my walking route, just off of a busy street. I heard him before I saw him, which is surprising given the astonishing red of his fauxhawk.

He was not bothered in the least by my efforts to photograph him. It was almost impossible to catch a nice pose, though, so I resorted to video. A super-blurry video still became the reference for the painting.

Combover

Combover. Oil on panel, 6" x 6". ©2019.

This cutie lives at River's Wish Animal Sanctuary, along with Precious the sheep, Blue the goat, and hundreds of other animals saved from terrible fates and allowed to live out their natural lives. So few animals get to do this. It's heartbreaking. Visiting the shelter always gives me mixed feelings. It's comforting to spend time with the lucky few who make it to the shelter. But I can't help but think about the legions more who don't.

 I eventually learned that this gentleman's name is... KEVIN! 🤣

See the time-lapse video of this painting here.

Glamping

Glamping. Oil on panel, 6" x 6". ©2019.

This mourning dove appeared inside my festival tent at a midwestern show several years ago. It had clearly spent the night there. When I unzipped the tent in the morning, this guy (or gal) startled the hell out of me by flapping wildly, flying around until it landed atop one of my display walls. Once it calmed down, I managed to get a few so-so photos before shooing it out.

At the time, I was showing botanical pastel paintings and felt lucky for once that I had to frame my work behind glass. It made cleanup a bit easier.

This was the first time I recall having seen one of these birds, but afterward, I noticed them everywhere. There is a pair that lives a block from my house that I've seen for years now. I love their soft, pinkish coloration (enhanced a bit here for the sake of the painting).

The Ginger

The Ginger. Oil on panel, 6" x 6". 2019.

I think these red pigeons are the most beautiful things. I've only seen four of them that I can recall. The first two were a few years ago at Alki beach in Seattle. I couldn't get close enough to photograph them, and upon trying to google them later, found very little information on them.

This Portland city pigeon was far less shy. It and another red-headed friend were mucking about doing pigeon things with the usual flock (or flight or kit) of standard grey pigeons.

My photo still came out a bit blurry (not a wildlife photographer!), and I was a bit concerned about the harsh shadows on the concrete in the background. All those things combined to make an interesting challenge, however, and a painting I genuinely like.

Flo

Flo. Oil on panel, 6" x 6". ©2019.

So, what does a chicken have to do with cocktails, you might ask?

Surprisingly, there is a connection. This particular chicken, whose name is Flo, loves to sit in a chair with her people on the front porch during cocktail hour. She was doing just that when I took the photo I used for painting reference.

Flo is a retired chicken that I "rescued" when her original person, my friend Teya, wanted to get another batch of chickens after the first group stopped laying. Now Flo enjoys things like arugula and popcorn while hanging out with her new friend Ché, the Portuguese water dog. She is every bit as intelligent, inquisitive and disapproving as she looks.

I had so much fun painting her, I suspect she and her animal friends will begin to take over this blog. I've apparently become kind of a lightweight when it comes to painting cocktails. I need to mix in some other things to avoid getting sick of them!

Here's Flo with me after getting her ear infection treated: