Sketch detail
Great Blue Heron Feather
watercolor & graphite on calfskin vellum
22″h x 8.25″w
I still feel a thrill every time I come upon a still Great Blue Heron – statue-like, patient, waiting… And then it lifts off and ‘croaks’ sounding and looking like a flying dinosaur! I wanted to capture that ‘stillness’ and at the same time show just how large these birds are. I love painting feathers and the shimmering colors underneath the blue gray of a Great Blue Heron were really fun to paint. This feather is life size – it is amazing to think that a bird this large can stand so silently.