Sea Bird, Florida, USA

This painting depicts a kind of sea bird living on the Florida coast. It looks like a heron or egret. Animals are always difficult to paint on location since they tend to move away. In this case it must have stood still long enough to capture the colour, shape and texture of the feathers. The rest of the painting depicts some characteristic stormy weather and choppy water of what is probably Sarasota bay.

I recently borrowed a book on Japanese wood block prints called One Hundred Famous Views of Edo which was begun by the famous print artist Hiroshige in the 19th century. Many of the French impressionist painters, and Van Gogh, were familiar with those types of prints and even collected them. When  I did this painting I wasn't really aware of Japanese prints, it just stuck me that there were a few similarities with the vertical picture format and the unusual foreground composition. One could say this painting has a birds eye view.

5 x 7 " cold press 2002?