Saturday, February 6, 2010

"Nuthatch and Crab Apple" 20x10 acrylic on masonite

Yes... I finally finished another painting! Maybe it's the beginning of a hot streak for me.
I shot my reference material (some of which I posted on this blog) for this piece last month at the edge of a crab apple thicket. The January sun was dropping quickly toward the horizon and the landscape took on a warm glow (even though the temperature was in the teens). The lichens on the tree bark practically vibrated with warm yellows and greens... which contrast very nicely with the reddish tones of the wood where the bark has flaked away. My goal was to capture that warm light to compliment the cool blue-gray of the nuthatch's back and draw the viewer's eye.


In all the hours I spent working on this piece, I failed to come up with a clever title. Maybe it will come to me later.

3 comments:

Peter Brown said...

Evidence that they don't all join the discards behind the door - nice work Jim! I'm a sucker for the vertical format and this one works beautifully.

Sorry, can't help with a clever title. "Nuthatch and Crab Apple" kind of nails it for me, which only serves to reinforce the fact that I'm "inspirationally deficient" at present.

Jim Bortz said...

Thanks Peter! I'm pretty happy with this one. And yes... I love the vertical format too. I'm working on several compositions that are a little more extreme in a vertical sense. We'll see if any ever make it to the easel.

Pat Burns said...

Hi Jim! I've passed along the Sunshine Blogger award to you that I received from Lisa Riehl. I rarely take the time to do these things, but it has been quite a while since I told my fellow artists how much joy & inspiration they bring me. Congrats, you can visit my site to retrieve it!