Mandarin Duck 2010

Dear Everyone:

I am very driven by aesthetic beauty.

I bought an illustrated book of Birds

and one of the first birds featured

was the Mandarin Duck. It may

be the most attractive bird I have

ever seen and I had to paint it.

Named after the colourful rich robes

of civil servants in China

the colours and plummage

are truly spectacular.

They reside mostly in China,

Japan and Siberia and

perch/roost in trees hence

they can be found in forrest

habitats.

They are related to Wood Ducks

which can be found in North America.

Truly a glorious bird.

Hope that you enjoy this

image.

Helen.

Goldfinch 2010

folkartbird062010(goldfinch)

This image is of a goldfinch.

It is the 6th image in my

folk art series of paintings

of birds.

I think the image looks

a bit Asian. Certainly it looks

spring-like. The branch and flowers

are from one of my own photographs.

Have a made-it-through-the-

holidays-kind of day.

Helen.

Duck 2009

folkartbird052009(duck)

Dear Everyone:

I think. I hope I have overcome my

procrastination on my series of

paintings of folk art birds.

Today's image is of a duck.

I enjoyed selecting the paint colours

for this image. I am also pleased

with the composition of this image

with the rock and the reeds in the backdrop

of the picture.

Hope you enjoy the image.

Have an-enjoy-family-and-

friends kind of day.

Helen.

Blue jay 2009

folkartbird042009(bluejay)

My series of folk art paintings of birds

is in part an acknowledgement of

my childhood.

My parents tended to live on

the outskirts of town. One property

was 10 acres of forrest. They always

had a bird feeder and we would see

cardinals, blue jays, robins and juncos

regularly. Less often and a treat were
woodpeckers and baltimore orioles,

and evening grosbeaks.

Now I live in town but run

in a scenic area with mature trees.

I see blue jays often and a blue jay

is today's painting. Blue

jay at sunrise.

Hope that you enjoy this

image.

Have an all-set-for-

New-Year's-resolutions

kind of day.

Helen.

Cardinal 2009

folkartbird012009(crow)

folkartbird022009(robin)

folkartbird032009(cardinal)

Well, believe it or not I overcame

my procrastination and painted

a folk art piece of a cardinal. I had

drawn the sketch way back in July.

I am truly pleased with how it turned out.

I just need to do one piece a day

of my folk art birds to complete

the series.

Hope you enjoy this image.

I have enclosed the other 2 pieces

I have completed in the series

so far to jog your memory as to them.

Have an-overcoming-procrastination-

kind-of-day.

Helen.

Raven

folkartbird012009

Starting a series of folk art paintings

of birds.

Have a start already with 20 sketches.

This is the first piece in the series

and coincidentally my favourite.

There is a wonderful story by James Houston

of a crow. This crow flew beside a trucker

in his vehicle and shared lunch with him.

When this gentleman died the crow flew beside

his replacement for 3 days and then stopped.

Clearly delineating that the crow had

been attached to the first trucker and not

the second and could differentiate them.

Hope that you enjoy this image.

Have a getting-back-into-the-swing-of-

things kind of day.

Helen.