Detail from American Redstart (7×10-inch Transparent Watercolor on Arches 140lb HP Paper)[/caption]
I always love seeing American Redstarts. We live in their breeding range, and over the past few years, several have nested in the park where I regularly go mountain biking. I now get to hear them all summer and not just when they migrate through our area, unlike most of the other warblers. I’ve painted them only once before, and that was about fifteen to twenty years ago. They were definitely worthy of a revisit. I got the photo references for this painting in northwest Ohio, on our annual spring migration birding trip. The main image had some interesting and subtle backlighting that was fun to work from.
To stretch my skills with watercolor, I usually try to do something new or challenging for each of my paintings. After decades of using watercolor, I still find things I’d really like to improve. It is a medium that you can tame, but there are always things to be mastered. For this painting I wanted to have areas with different levels of focus, backlighting and to try to keep some areas loose. In the end I was happy with it and had a lot of fun working on it!
Please contact me if you’re interested in buying the original watercolor or a print of this painting. Some of my work is also available for licensing.
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