PAIR OF MOURNING DOVES

 

4 x 5 inches, watercolor, 2022

The framed original is for sale at the Water + Color Gallery, Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393

framed original painting $155

 

The pencil sketch for this very tiny painting was for composing the painting below, called Bird Sanctuary  (Look at the tiny black window high up on the silo).  I loved the mood and simplicity of the sketch so much that I decided to paint it.  Although the original painting is tiny, it has a nice mat and frame, which give it more presence.  The gray border shown above is purely for the blog.

BIRD SANCTUARY

 

10 x 17 inches, watercolor, 2022

The framed original painting is for sale at the Water + Color Gallery, 

Wilmington, NC   Phone:  910-833-5393

framed original painting $528

giclee print $100

The silo in this painting is based on a real, existing silo in Goldsboro, North Carolina.  Goldsboro used to be a "bird sanctuary", which I know because of the official proclamation to that effect on the city limits signs remembered from my childhood.  Seeing the signs on car trips into town with my father, I thought they were specifically intended for little boys like me, who had received BB guns from Santa Claus;  Funny now, but I believe I may have been right all along.

The painting was first completed as a lone silo in the middle of a field, which was later re-imagined as you see it here (much more interesting, I think).  The other buildings and most of the birds were added later.  The laurel blossoms are gouache (opaque paint), but the white parts of the birds and the window were scratched in with a knife. If you're not a watercolorist, these techniques are more common than you might think.