Framed oil painting

18 x 24 (image size) Oil on canvas

Don’t Look Down ~ #6 in the Yellow Foot Collection!

As the three little Snowy Egrets stood way atop the palm trees watching the Indian Yellow sun go down, the snowy on the right advised the other two not to look down! The snowy in the middle of course looked down. After all, they were all standing on the same narrow palm frond. Could this one narrow branch possibly hold all three of them, thought the one in the middle? Birds are like people in that some are brave, some are Casual Charlies, and some are chickens! :-)

The snowy on the right is the brave one. The one on the left is the Casual Charlie, and the one in the middle is the chicken! I see it all the time when I’m photographing birds. Some let you get super close and don’t care, some just aren’t bothered by anything, and others fly off as soon as they see you. I loved seeing the three snowies together, each one with an entirely different look.

My painting, Don’t Look Down, was chosen to be #6 in my Yellow Foot Collection mostly because of the composition of the three snowies, but I also wanted to have fun with color, which was one of my goals when starting the collection.

As day transitions into night, there is a brief period of time known to many as the golden hour. The sun is setting but it gives off a last burst of warm sunlight, which sets everything aglow.

With all-white birds, as the sun goes down, whites darken into grays, blues and violets in the shade, creating almost a silhouette around the bird.

I started with a cobalt blue mixture to create the outline of the snowies. Then I mixed a combination of Naples Yellow, Indian Yellow, and Titanium White to create the colorful background. I loved the way the blues and yellows complimented each other, so I decided to keep the background a solid color and the birds simple.

The Indian Yellow sky actually has a little wax mixed in with the paint to help create a softness to what otherwise might be too strong of a color. I ended up loving the color and find myself as attached to the background as I am to the birds.

I hope you too find Don’t Look Down to be a painting you’re drawn to. It was a fun one to paint. If I were up high in a palm tree I would definitely be the one in the middle looking down! :-)