My Newest Piece, Fields of Gold

The newest in my songbirds series. I crowdsourced a name for him, and picked this one from the suggestions for a couple reasons. The bird himself, I painted from my own reference material!

It's very exciting. Last summer, my partner took me to the Canadian Raptor Conservancy as a birthday gift. We got to see several of the birds of prey they've been raising. This fellow's name in real life is 'Baby' Huey. Or so he was when we were there. It think they were just about ready to drop the 'baby' part of the moniker. He'd hatched that year, so he was still young. I got a few really nice shots of him, but my goodness, none of them compare to the LIFERS who were out with us that day with their massive lenses.

Some of them share their prize shots with the conservancy's social media page, and holy hot damn, there's some National Geographic level photography.

Fortunately for me and my fragile little ego, I wasn't there to compete with them. Just to get some references for me. And I did. And here's the outcome of one of them.

As to the name, I didn't think Huey really speaks for the vibe of this piece. The person who expressed most interest in buying this one actually came up with the name. Whether or not she decides on it, that level of love has weight. And then, in that some conversation thread, as we continued to talk about Sting, he showed up on my TV. It was a sign. I mean, yes, I was watching a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction rerun from the late 90s, but STILL. A sign.

Here's looking at a good 2022, Year of the Tiger. My year, and my partner's year. We have a 12 year gap between us, so we cover some ground with the elements.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!