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Mockingbird ritual

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

Mockingbird mating flight ritual - 10 x 10 inches pencil, eraser, paper

Last night it was especially noticable that the Mockingbirds have started their mating season. Pronouncing himself at the highest peak on a rooftop, the male mocks other birds’ calls, repeating each call 3-4 times, ad-lib style, but if you listen for a while there’s a recognizable rhythm. Then in a ritual flight dance he flies up a short distance and does graceful flip in the air, flashing the white wing stripes, back to the perch and repeats the pattern over and over.

After listening to them quite a bit, there are some that have a larger repertoire of calls and a louder, determined, clearer song…I’m guessing that those are the most mature and attractive (because if I were a female Mockingbird I’d choose them first!).

Diamonds In The Rough

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

Diamonds In The Rough - Great White Egret, Andy Brown Jr. Park, Coppell, Texas - Early morning dew on the grass, still slightly foggy but enough sun to make the water sparkle, and a Mayfly appearing at exactly the right moment… now these are my kind of diamonds!

To enhance the photo it was digitally changed to black and white and the contrast was clarified x 3. In the thumbnail below (click to see larger version) only the contrast was clarified. Both versions are available.

Mockingbird

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

This week mating season has started for Mockingbirds in northeast Texas, and they are singing with fervor. I read that Mockingbirds mimic over 120 bird calls. I think there are a couple of frog calls in the mix too.

Baby Budgies

Friday, February 8th, 2008

While sorting through and attempting to downsize the maze of photos on my desktop and in ‘documents’ folders, I could easily spend weeks on the computer doing just that.

My sister-in-law has a prolific female Budgie - here, her chicks about seven days old - April 2007.

Male Cardinal

Saturday, October 6th, 2007

Cardinal ~ 24 x 24 inch Acrylics on canvas

* (1st phase below) ~ experiment with different effects for branch patterns; used two separate applications of masking medium, used traditionally in watercolor paintings. Second phase: trying to highlight the bird’s interaction with its environment and hoping to find a way to do more than providing the expected sort of portrait of a cardinal. Addition of a Pthalos Blue wash changes the mood and the season, maybe even the time of day…interesting what one or two brushes of color can do.

(more…)

Peace by our back door

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

This is the second time around for doves nesting in the wreath by our back door. I’m sure it’s the same pair who devotedly cared for two eggs, taking turns in shifts as they are now. The chick in the second thumbnail is from the first brood hatched in May. It mysteriously disappeared after two days and the other egg didn’t hatch. There was no trace of that chick anywhere..no body, bones, feathers..nothing. It was not old enough to fend for itself - could the parents have eaten it I wonder?

Maybe there was something wrong with it, or the parents were too nervous? The lizards and salamanders around here are too small to eat a meal that size, and other birds would not have been brave enough to come so near to the door I don’t think. Nature takes care of itself though, so no tears! Hopefully these ones will survive and we can watch them mature.

Sept. 3rd: One of the chicks hatched! There were about six Starlings on the roof, overlooking the evestrough, which is not usual for them (at our house anyway), so I’m thinking maybe they are interested in robbing the chick from it’s nest. Sept. 4th update: The chick appears to be so much larger today, and it’s the first time I’ve seen it so exposed. It seems so vulnerable on that small flimsy nest. Sept. 5th: The chick has been left on its own a lot in the past 24 hours, also becoming quite vocal. The other egg is unlikely to hatch. Sept.9th: The nest is overcrowded. The chick ruffled its feathers and snapped its tiny beak at me when I took these photos - the instincts are strong - how sweet is that?!

Sept. 11th: When the parent sitting on the chick in the nest is up in the air above the nest, it’s time for little chicky to leave! That’s what I thought the day before the chick flew away, and sure enough it was time.

Sept. 12th: Fortunately I walked out just in time to see it fly from the ground to the fence nearby (I startled it). There it remained for about 90 minutes then it was gone. That night I wondered where it would be sleeping, and if it was truly on its’ own now without parents, how it would survive; less than a month before it was not even in the form of an egg!! Sept 13th: didn’t expect to see it again, but while sitting outside at dusk, there they were, the mom (or dad) and chick. It was so pleasing to see them sitting on the fence together, and I still see the little one come into the yard, much bigger now. It is smaller than an adult, and I’m sure that must be the same chick. I like to think so anyway.

All photographs printed on 11 x 17 100 lb. Satin finish cardstock high quality photographs are one of a kind, signed, most with white mat and a 3″ wide black frame. Please contact nikki_coulombe@hotmail.com for details about this or any Artwork you wish to purchase. (thanks!)

Jabiru

Friday, September 1st, 2006

Jabiru - 24 x 18 pencil, eraser on paper
Drawings have a job to do: to provide viewers with more than just a pretty picture.
Before starting I envisioned a drawing based on Japanese principles of using fewer lines and shading, with empty spaces considered as much a part of the drawing as every mark. Here’s what I learned through the process of this drawing: When we view Art we do more than just look; we sense character, mannerisms, and emotions… imparted through every little corner of the work, whether we’re aware of it or not, so within the limitations of gray scale in pencil drawing, Artists need to do more than just show. There are tones implied through those tones!
The irony of the lesson is that this uncommon subject, a Jabiru, is not so pretty upon first glance either, and it’s one of the reasons I chose to keep the drawing soft. By purposely compromising the values and using a lighter touch, my hope was that the viewer’s response might be “nice drawing” before thinking “ugly bird”. To explain further, the Jabiru’s feathers are pure white and its head including beak are very dark grey, almost black. The style I was stubborn about from the start: simple with a lot of white space. The media: pencil on white paper. Whereas a photograph utilizes the whole range of dark and light values in a picture, a person drawing needs to choose how much of black, white and gray tones to apply in order to keep pleasing balance visually, but also as importantly: the effect they have on our impressions. The Jabiru’s huge beak strikes a strong sillhouette by shape alone, so to lessen the impact of the large odd shape on a fairly empty page, extremes were avoided even though “realistically” the bird’s beak is quite dark.
I really want stress here that a drawing is not a photograph, and a photograph is not a drawing. Obvious… you’d think so, but a lot of Artists even believe that every drawing needs to be perfectly realistic. Photographs might be the source of inspiration or for details that memory has missed or forgotten, but never to duplicate. Drawings that are copied attempting to produce an exact visual likeness, relying purely on the photo, lack a certain warmth no matter how well rendered they are. This is a hot topic with Artists, not arising out of elitist attitudes at all, but because Art includes the human factor. A photo is a product of a machine; the visual details are copied with no sense or emotion; it does what it’s been designed to do. Drawings are unique representations of all that we sense as well as see. We interpret character of a subject not only visually, but also through our multidimensional senses and intelligence.

Galahs in Traffic, reworked

Friday, April 14th, 2006

Galahs in Traffic - Flocks of Galahs fly head on into cars on the road to Kangaroo Island, South Australia. 14 x 11 Oil Pastels ~ Available

All drawings in the series Paper Places are framed with 3″ white mat, 3″ wide white wood classic style frame 26 x 22 inches.

Post-dated note: Galahs in Traffic placed in Artjury.com’s 2007 Fall/Winter Juried Online Exhibition.

Galahs in Traffic, version 1

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006

Galahs in Traffic - Version 1 - This drawing started out to be a portrait of the Norfolk Island Pines growing in this coastal area of South Australia. Many of the pieces in the Paper Places series have a first stage at the end of a day or two worth of work where it could be called finished, then further scrutiny says that it needs to be changed.

1) This is an area unlike any other, where flocks of Galahs flew directly into the traffic on the main highway leading to the Kangaroo Island ferry. Dead Galahs lay along the side of the road for miles. After two days of work and remembering the horrifying feelings of that scene, it was undeniably clear that the drawing as it is in the stage above, even though it could be called finished, is stagnant, ordinary, and so very unsuitable for the subject and what takes place there every day.