Red Tanager, 8x10 Original Oil Painting

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Not much to tell, was just in the mood to paint a little bird.

Carmen

Scrub Jay, 8x6 Watercolor

 

The Florida Scrub Jay is the only bird species that lives exclusively in Florida, inhabiting scrub oak in sandy soils. It is threatened by loss of habitat. This painting is a departure for me, a small watercolor. 

Carmen

5-Day Challenge: Costa's Hummingbird 5x7 Oil on Panel

Many thanks to my friend Tom Gottfried for sending me beautiful hummingbird pictures. He is quite a photographer, and cultivates flowers in his yard that attract hummingbirds. The results are stunning.

Carmen

5-Day Challenge, 20-Minute Painting, Ho-Hummingbird 5x7 Oil on Panel

The artist Mary Gilkerson periodically conducts a 5-Day Challenge on her website, https://marygilkerson.com, and today is the first day. We have 20 minutes to complete a painting. This is an incredibly useful lesson and comes at a time when we are all stuck at home, so no excuse not to do it. This is my first painting, oil on panel, and the urge to correct is strong, but I am sticking with the flat 20 minutes, and what you see is what you get. It takes a lot for me not to nitpick.

Carmen

Royal Terns, 7x5 Original Oil Daily Painting on Canvas Panel Beach Art

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I love these birds with their cute little hairdos. I have jumped right from the mountains to the seashore in this blog, having returned home after almost three weeks in North Carolina. The contrast is drastic, but I love both places. Each is beautiful in its own way.

Carmen

Everglades Spoonbills Bird Art Print Florida Birds Free Shipping

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I visited Marzek Pond in the Everglades and was thrilled to see flocks of birds of various kinds. Spoonbills are my favorites because of their beautiful color and comical faces. This image may be ordered as a high-quality giclee print on stretched canvas in the sizes listed by clicking on "Select Dimensions" above. It is mounted on stretcher bars and the sides are black, so it may be hung with or without a frame. The materials are pigment inks on acid-free archival canvas and guaranteed to last over 100 years.

 

Carmen

Young Cardinal, 6x8 Oil Painting, Wildlife Art

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This was an experiment, adding punch to this painting with vivid color. Baby birds are just so cute, especially when all fluffed up.

Carmen

Flamingo Twist, 12x12 Oil Painting on Canvas, Wildlife Art

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I love flamingos. This guy is perfectly comfortable standing on that one skinny leg, neck twisted, beak down in his feathers, doing...what? Sleeping? Looking for something, and if so, what? Or just fluffing that magnificent plumage?

This is fresh off the easel, 12 x12 inches on stretched canvas, still wet.

Carmen

Basking Robin, Original Oil Painting, 5x7 Oil on Panel, Bird Art, Wildlife Art

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This little guy looks like he just ventured out for Spring. I give my husband the credit--or blame--for the title. Actually, I like it a lot. 

Carmen

Cardinal, 7x5 Original Oil on Panel, Bird Painting

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I don't have a thing to say about this painting, except that I squeezed this in while busy with a lot of other exciting things. I finished a huge illustration job, then published my children's book, Dibble the Dragon. Now I am working on illustrations for someone else's children's book. I'm also spending time traveling, gardening and studying Italian. Life is good. La Dolce Vita!

Carmen

Oil Painting, "Blackbird," 5x7 Oil on Canvas Panel

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This was my entry in the Pieces of Eight challenge this month, to paint a black bird without using black paint. I saw this little guy at our zoo, enjoying the food people were tossing to the exotic birds, and I loved all the colors I could see in his black feathers.

Carmen

Pelican at the Port, 5x7 Original Oil Painting on Canvas Panel, Daily Painting

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I usually paint just what I see, and I am trying to get away from that in cases like this, where the photo colors were quite dull. I ramped up the color and I like it much better.

Carmen

 

Roseate Spoonbills, Giclee Prints on Canvas

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This is the painting I did for International Artist Magazine's March 2012 issue. I sold the original last year, but I now have giclee prints available in my Etsy Shop at varying sizes and prices. These beautiful birds were hanging out in the Everglades, feeding in the mangroves. They are such a contradiction, with their funny spoon faces and their exquisite plumage. Perhaps God didn't want them to be too vain.

Carmen

Everglades Spoonbills, 24x20 Oil on Canvas Wildlife Painting

SOLD

Thanks to our dynamic Brevard Cultural Alliance for exhibiting my Spoonbill painting at the Titusville Airport, where it recently sold. These beautiful birds were at Mrazek Pond in the Everglades; there were many species of birds there, including white pelicans. I realize now how lucky I was to get this shot, because I went back to Mrazek Pond on another trip to the Glades and saw no birds at all.

Spoonbills are unique. They have exquisite plumage and a face like a spoon.

Carmen

Flamingo, 6x8 Oil on Canvas Panel Daily Painting

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Flamingos are such funny birds. Not only do they stand on those skinny legs, they can stand on one only! When they are resting, their neck can be twisted around and tucked under their wings; however, their gorgeous color offsets their silly looks. They are magnificent in a goofy way.

Carmen

Ibis, 6x8 Oil on Canvas Panel, Wildlife Art, Daily Painting

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I've been painting a lot of flowers lately, so here's a little change of pace. These birds were at our wonderful Brevard Zoo in Melbourne. To quote the zoo website, here is how it all started:

It began as a small group of people...
A small group of people with a big dream; building a zoo. A world-class zoo that would serve as a conservation hub where people could gather to learn about animals. A place to escape from the urban world and get closer to nature, to be reminded of the diversity of the life with which we share this planet.

Now we have a state-of-the-art zoo with rhinos, giraffes, meerkats--it's an amazing testament to what community effort can do.

Carmen

Red-Bellied Woodpecker, 8x6 Oil on Canvas, Bird Painting

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Our painting group had a challenge last week to paint this cute bird. You'd think it would be called a Redheaded Woodpecker, but no, it has a spot of red way down on its belly, hence the name. 

We take turns assigning a weekly challenge, and while we are meeting that challenge an interesting phenomenon occurs. A hush falls over us. This is the only time this unusual occurrence happens, and only after two hours of complete concentration do we break into song (or sometimes, dance). This is followed closely by food consumption. This is why we live for Thursdays.

Carmen

Roseate Spoonbills, 24x18 Oil on Canvas

$900, Click to Purchase

This is the painting I did for International Artist Magazine's March 2012 issue. It has been doing some traveling, but now that it's settled down I have put it online in my Etsy Shop. These beautiful birds were hanging out in the Everglades, feeding in the mangroves. They are such a contradiction, with their funny spoon faces and their exquisite plumage. Perhaps God didn't want them to be too vain.

Flamingo Dancer, 5x7 Pen and Ink Drawing

$38, Click to Purchase

Every time someone says, "Flamingo Dancer" this is what pops in my head. So nice to be able to put it on paper. I like the rose in her teeth (if she had teeth). Alas, my Flamenco Dancer fails in the castanet department; one really needs fingers for that.