Framed oil painting

20 x 20 (image size) Oil on canvas

Green with Envy ~ #8 in the Yellow Foot Collection!

The Snowy Egret is depicted putting his best foot forward, hoping to attract the perfect mate. Other males envy his good looks. He always puts on a nice display of plumage for the female Snowies. His stoic stance and full headdress reminds me of a young Indian Chief, looking out over a vast canyon. This Snowy Egret is proud of his feathers, just like the Indians were proud of theirs!

He stands out against the dense, dark foliage. There is no hiding place among the greenery when you’re a bright white bird. But, it’s that time of year when the birds want to be seen. To attract a mate, young male Snowies present themselves to females by standing tall, stretching their necks out, and fluffing their plumage.

I intentionally worked at creating an Impressionist feel to the painting. It’s not my natural tendency, but I love Impressionism, so I pushed myself to create soft edges, broken color, and stayed away from the small brushes.

Instead of painting every leaf, I broke down shapes and simplified them.

There is a lot of green in the painting, but in order to make it interesting I added other colors to the leaves like Cadmium Yellow, and Manganese Blue. I started with earthy greens throughout the painting, but gradually added a more Impressionist palette to brighten it up.

Prussian Blue, Lemon Yellow, and white creates a nice summery green. Dabs of the manganese blue speckle the canvas and add pops of light.