Three Finches, 2020, Oil on Panel

I've made a minor change than will have an impact on the narrative.  Can you find it?  

 

Three Finches

 

Three Finches, 2020, Oil on Panel, 12"x12"

This board once had a Baltimore Oriole with the paint brush and the oriole facing down.  I was dissatisfied with the position and form of the oriole as well as the contrast against the blue.  Abandoning that idea I replaced it with the three American Goldfinches.  I played with having some yellow paint drip off the brush to indicate what the first finch is looking at.   

Bay of Funny, Work in Progress

 

Bay of Funny, Oil on Aluminum, 6"x12"

In continuing with the theme of "sunsets I have witnessed", this experience was in Nova Scotia on the Bay of Fundy.  To be more precise this is the Cobequid Bay which is an inlet of Fundy.  We were staying at Burntcoat Head where the highest tidal range in the world was measured.  The average tidal range is 41 feet. Wow!  Other than the sunsets of Imperial Beach, CA, these were the most fabulously colorful I've seen.  The oranges and reds were almost surreal. We were staying in a little cottage set high above the Bay with a completely unobstructed view of the sky.  It was an August summer evening.

Sunsets I Have Seen

 

Winter on Buzzards Bay, Oil on Panel, 6"x12"

The cove that runs off Buzzards Bay is named Mink Cove.  The mink are no longer around.  Instead there are fishers, coyote, fox, deer, turkey.  The brackish water rarely freezes as the salt and tide movements keep it fluid.  But here in the first week of December and at low tide, there is ice in which the sunset is reflected.  

Work in Progress, Winter on Buzzards Bay

Winter on Buzzards Bay

I took a photo last winter of this beautiful sunset and the reflections on the frozen marsh.  This represents about 6 hours of work.  The sky should be much pinker. The frozen water needs to lean more orange and the marsh grasses should be browner.  Still to come are trees that book end the image.  

 

Woodpeckers

Northern Flicker, 2020, Oil on Panel, 12"x12"

There are 4 species of woodpeckers that frequent our bird feeders, the Northern Flicker, the Red-bellied, the Downy and the Hairy. My guess is the Northern Flicker pictured above is a Red-shafted form. There are Yellow-shafted and hybrid forms. These guys actually prefer to eat ants on the ground than to peck on dead trees.  

Red-bellied Woodpecker, 2020, Oil on Panel, 12"x12"

Look closely and you will see the red belly from which this guy gets his name.  I think the Red-headed woodpecker had already claimed that nomenclature.  It is often hard to find that belly because they cling to tree trunks with the belly pressed against the trunk.  I captured this guy when he was clinging to the seed feeder.  

Zacchaeus, the Black-Chinned Hummingbird

Oil on Panel, 5"x5"

My brother, John, lives in Southwest Arkansas.  For two years he has had a Black-chinned hummingbird appear at his house.  The bird's range only reaches from California east to the western half of Texas.  So, it is unusual to see this little guy in Arkansas.  My brother named him Zacchaeus for the diminutive descendant of Abraham and in whose home Jesus dined.