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

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

Stepping Stones, 5x7 Original Oil on Canvas Panel, Smoky Mountains Art

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We were hiking near Boone, North Carolina and crossed this little stream with its reflections of blue sky. It was a glorious Fall day and I was with my painting group, some of my favorite people in the world. It doesn't get any better than that.

Carmen

Waterfall, 11x14 Oil on Canvas, Smoky Mountain Landscape Painting

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It's amazing what you can find a few steps off the road in the Smokies. This was a magical place, with mossy green rocks and falling water. I love my home at the beach, but those mountains call to me now and then. This is a signed original, ready to frame.

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.

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Everglades Sunrise, 6x6 Oil on Canvas Panel

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This is a nostalgic piece, because it reminds me of camping in the Everglades with two Pieces of 8, Kathy and the recently departed Cindy (no, she didn't die, she just departed for North Carolina). This is a tiny little painting of the beautiful sunrise in the Everglades. I was disappointed to not see Spoonbills, but there was other wildlife: more alligators than I could count, and a huge, thick, black spider that got on my paper towels when I was painting. Thank goodness I noticed him before I grabbed a towel! 

We saw no pythons, but a recent python hunt brought forth over a hundred! They are ruining the ecology and hard to eradicate. When small game gets wiped out, large game leaves, and all sorts of things happen in the food chain. Just watch this video, "How Wolves Change Rivers"  and you'll see what I mean.

Carmen