Blue Boy

I have become quite fond of juxtapositions lately:  Warm against cool, dark against light, calm against active etc.  And turquoise, red, black and white is one of my favorite color combos.  Seems like I used them all in this blue heron portrait. I grayed down the reds a little in this painting to make them recede and the blues stronger.

When I use the word portrait to describe a painting that isn't of a person I mean that the bird, fish, turtle, palm tree or whatever is the only object in the painting.  (I do realize that great portrait painters i.e. Sargent, often painted their subjects surrounded by other objects.) So the next logical step would be to paint the heron in the landscape using the same color palette.  Once again I would like to thank the artists who generously share their reference photos on Wet Canvas.

"Blue Boy"
20" x 16"
$375

P.S.  did you ever do one of the paint-by-numbers of Gainsborough's Blue Boy?  Wasn't it fun!