Where the Birds Are.

After winning a spot in the Birds in Art 2009 at the Woodson Museum, I decided to the show in person, I haven't traveled anywhere in at least 8 years so this is a big deal for me. I knew some of the great bird and wildlife artists in the world would be there, the ones who wrote the books I read, the masters of the art form I love. So thought, wow, don't want to go back there and know nothing about the subject! I went instantly on track for full immersion. On Wet Canvas where I hang out sometimes, I started a 100 Birds Challenge where I challenged myself and other artists to join me and to do 100 birds. I set a 30 day time frame for my work, others chose up to a year in time frame. Here is the link, if you are a budding bird artist there are lots of posts on all aspects of the work and some posts by amazing artists.

One thing essential to any real bird artist is to be able to draw from life out in the field. Tho in my other work I got away with some light sketching and reliance on photos, some how for birds this will not get the job done. To get the "jizz" takes many hours of observation and sketching (jizz is the essential character of that particular species of bird, that can be recognized even without field marks, like seeing a friend walking toward you and you know by how they walk who they are even before you can see their face.

After the first outing with my older eyes, I got a pair of binoculars, this helped, but trying to use them, then drop back to the sketch book and then trying to find the bird again with the bins, convinced me I needed a scope, but put that off for a while. I drew in 3 major places where I could get somewhat close to the birds, that were hanging out in a spot long enough to observe, and not just passing through momentarily. I drew at Bodega Headlands and Bay, a major migration spot for hundreds of birds between the Arctic and Mexico, white and brown pelicans, terns, godwits, willets, several ducks, loons, cormorants, gulls, ravens, oystercatchers, and many many more.


Shollenberger Park in Petaluma, a large marshy lake, and migration spot,









and on W 9th street in the city of Santa Rosa. Here in the middle of a neighborhood, in fact, in the middle of the meridan on a 4 lane street are 3 trees that are the roost of Great, Snowy and Cattle Egrets, as well as Black Crowned Night Heron. In these trees from April to August, a great noisy group of these birds, roost and raise their young. I park on the street and take my little stool to the center island and have a ringside seat for the constant show.