The Birds.... in Mexico

A scene even Hitchcock did not imagine... there you are resting on a tropical beach looking out on the blue water and seeing Cuba in the distance (the buildings on the horizon of the sea), and then along come a flock of killer birds. These birds were not very dangerous looking unless you were wearing a french-fry suit, although I am not so sure about the pelican...you can see one in the painting standing on the artificial reef. They eat human flesh don't they? Probably just fish.

Painting things that move when you are sitting on location is hard. Birds, cars, people. So often I keep the moving elements out of the main composition...if there are people I keep them near the bottom or buried in the foreground, if there are cars I usually just show one parked or scribble in one in the distance. These strategies down play the importance of the moving object in your composition. In this case however, I made the birds central to the composition, the arrangement of the birds form an "S" shape starting on the bottom left where the birds tail is off the picture. The "S" shape draws your eye around the picture. I also used the classic 'red on bottom' trick... notice the splash of red in the sand that makes the foreground warm (and thus it pops off he page) whereas the background is all cold colours. Together with the "S" composition, these tricks give a lot of depth to the landscape.

5x7" cold press 2010.