Harris's Hawk" watercolor 5"x7" $65

I listened to the Vermont Institute of Natural Science's bird handler and watched them lay prey for this Harris's Hawk. At lightening speed and ten feet above the ground it flew to center stage and up to the hand of it's handler. It's deep rich color and agility was mesmerizing. I sat with my watercolors in the audience and made this sketch. I saw many large raptor so close I felt like I could touch them.   

"Peregrines" watercolor 5"x7"

Birding in Vermont is made pretty easy at Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS), which is where I brought my watercolors and left my binoculars in the car. I spent the day with owls, buteos and vultures.
VINS rehabilitate injured raptors to tiny hummers and I could view fledging cedar waxwings, bald eagles, and these Peregrine Falcons among many others. What a treat to see them so close, even with their crooked wing or blind eye. Their colors, elegance and beauty is unsurpassed.

"Three Xantus's Hummingbirds" watercolor 8"x10" $95

I go birding with my watercolor paints. It isn't always that I have time to paint when out with fellow birders but always bringing my paints keeps me in tune with
the Art of Birding: shapes, colors, habitat and brushstrokes. While other birders create their life-list, I record the total image-a bird's landscape that I can paint on a lunch break or back in my studio. Some studies I sell and some studies become my life-list, in a journal with habitat notes