"Springing Into Action"...

Everywhere one looks there is evidence that Spring is in the air! Every species of bird life is "tweeting" their signature (sp)ring tones... and are engaged in their unique spring dancing marathons.Gulls in large numbers circling high above... European Starlings line dancing... one over top of the other all along the telephone wires. Robin males frenetically squawking... drive off competition. Red wing blackbird males perched on their bull rush parapets... wings spread wide to display their scarlet epaulets. Even the usually sedate mourning doves ... now paired... resort to uncharacteristically aggressive behaviours. Geese and mallards are paired and have already set up spring housekeeping in smallish swails and puddles. Soon nesting will get underway. Yup!... Spring has definitely sprung!

There are some signs that Spring is on the minds of human kind as well. While waiting for Bryn's bus to arrive at the Kingston station... I (casually)... noticed a pair of real life student "love birds" in a tight clutch.... nuzzlin' n' bussin' continuously... unaware of a throng all around them. That's a sure sign... that spring... and love are in the air! However... as I make my rounds in my daily life, I continually hear nothing but harping complaints about the cold hanging on... low water... snow coming and going... high winds... dampness and rain. Hey!... these are the perennial parts of the process which leads us out of winter and into the long-awaited idyllic days of summer.

I spend a lot of time out doors throughout winter and all of the seasons. Each and every day that I make my way "out there" to enjoy the peace and solitude which being there offers me, I usually am joined by groups of chatty... inquisitive and ever- friendly black-capped chickadees. They talk to me constantly.They engage me as one of their own... and though I am larger and am a stranger, they welcome me unconditionally to join them in their simple pursuit... of just being alive. This is the very reason that this wee bird is my favourite of all songbirds. Oh... that there more chickadee-like individuals ... in the human world! Life would definitely be a happier place to live and work in..

If Life be about "choices".... then choose to be a Chickadee!

This painting is a deeply felt tribute to my black-capped plein air pals!

The basic point of lay in has been reached.... but considerations and tweaking of details and values are still required. I was unhappy with the nebulous feel of the upper band the very top of the painting. It lets the eye escape the composition.

You will note that I pushed the detail in the treatment of the birds. I felt this necessary for two reasons. While the birds can indeed be treated somewhat broadly... they must be clearly defined in terms of the characteristics of this bird... and especially in the upside down pose of the one. I feel the treatment does not enter into the magic realism genre at all... and that the birds have a painterly flare... which is accented by the background... most definitely painterly in treatment. Birders will be looking... and perhaps they are potentially the ones most likely to buy this piece.... should I wish to offer it to the market. Not a given this morning!

Overheard in the sugar bush!

My turn pal!........

Chick-a-dee-dee-dee!.... Yummmy! Yummy!

"A Sweet Taste of Spring" - oil on toned Masonite panel - 20x16 inches

Note the extra distance achieved by simply adding yet another and more distant plane of slightly different snow cover. It combines with the ridge of bright snow just ahead of it... to stop the eye and carry it along that bright plane and back into the painting composition... as the eye pleases. It is trapped!


Happy Spring !.... to ALL!!