Framed oil painting

30 x 24 (image size) oil on canvas

Bold and Beautiful Blue ~ Portrait of a Great Blue Heron!

I’ve taken thousands of photographs of Great Blue Herons over the years. Believe it or not, they all don’t look alike. Don’t get me wrong, most of them are very similar in appearance, but occasionally one will stand out from the crowd. In my latest painting entitled Bold and Beautiful Blue, I painted a heron that was not only unusually handsome but also bold!

Jen and I have been birding now for roughly 15 years. We’ve seen Great Blue Herons in all kinds of settings, up close and from a distance. We’ve traveled to rookeries, to nature preserves, taken daily walks birding, with me gathering way too many gigabytes featuring the prehistoric looking Great Blue Heron.

The funny thing about this particular heron was that he landed right in front of our house at our pond, proceeded to walk the shoreline in search of food, and couldn’t have cared less that I was standing there with my camera getting ready to take a walk. He let me get as close as I wanted without even a moment of concern.

I had my 100-400mm zoom on my camera, but I sure didn’t need it. He let me take all the photographs I wanted, gave me a few different poses and finally I decided to leave the handsome bird alone. :)

I love that this bird came to me. It was as if he flew in and said, “I’m who you’ve been looking for! Paint me!” :)

Painting bird portraits is something I find very rewarding. I feel a connection to each bird I paint because we have usually spent a good bit of time together. Both of us standing in silence, until the bird becomes so comfortable that it goes about its business in a relaxed manner.