Wildlife

American Kestrel
Oil, 11 x 14"

The kestrel is the smallest and most colorful of the raptors.

The Aerial Knight
Pencil, 11 x 14"

This is one of my favorite hawk drawings. The title is a reference to my interest in chess, and I've always enjoyed seeing hawks about.  When I draw a hawk, I want it to be more than just  documentation of a specimen.  It's more like a portrait, as individual and with as much character as a painting of a person.  I try to express the intensity in the gaze of the hawk, and if the hawk is shown in flight, I want the viewer to be able to sense the wind in the bird's wings, and the hunger in it's talons.  If I can share with the viewer that kind of perception, then I think the drawing is a success, a real work of art.

I won third place for this work in a Long Island art show, which surprised me.  First and second went to large, gorgeous oils, and deservedly so.  Black and white graphics rarely do so well in competitions with colored works.

There's a story that goes along with this drawing, a day in the life from the view of the hawk itself. You can read it here.

This is one of my largest hawk drawings, as I don't like to make things larger than life size. This hawk has an impatient, hungry look to it. When I begin drawing a hawk, I typically do the eyes first, finishing them to a high degree of detail before I move on to the rest of the picture.  This way, if I'm not happy with the way the eye looks, I can start another drawing with less lost effort.  And if that critical part turns out well, the rest of the drawing usually follows suit.  This drawing turned out very nicely, and I am quite happy with it.

I still have prints of this drawing available.  If interested, please drop me a note.

Peregrine Falcon
Pencil, 9 x 12"

The Peregrine is my favorite species of hawk. They're natural cliff dwellers, and do quite well in cities with tall buildings and large pigeon populations, like Manhattan. I always looked, but when I lived in New York City I never saw one.  I had fun with this drawing, drawing in some streaks of guano visible beneath the bird.  When I framed it, I used a little white and brown paint on the frame to extend the guano beyond the picture plane.  Sometimes, this get curious looks from the viewer at first, but it's usually followed by a smile.

The Watchful Hawk
Pencil, 9 x 12"

This picture is a portrait of a red tailed hawk on it's hunting perch, waiting for lunch to show up. This was my first hawk drawing, done when I was home from work, sick with the flu. I was getting very restless after a few days of inactivity, so when I was finally well enough to sit up and stay focused on something, I looked for a project to do that wasn't too much exertion.  In this work, I was experimenting with hot pressed paper, which I found much too slick for this kind of work. It produced a polished finish, but didn't allow for crisp detail.  Still, I liked the result, and this work started a whole series of hawk drawings for me.

This picture is a striking portrait of a Broad Winged hawk in strict profile, just as he is touching down for a landing on his hunting perch. It was drawn with a lot of sharp detail, as befits the distinctive markings of this magnificent creature.  However, when working on the drawing, I treated each small section as an abstract design, concerned mostly with the relationships of the contrasting shades with the patterns that surrounded it.  That approach led to a very different working attitude than I normally use.

I made a limited number of prints from this drawing, and the edition sold out fairly quickly.

I got a little playful with this drawing, and turned my signature into the fish the Osprey is about to have for dinner.  In the print version of this image, the corners have been faded to white, leaving an oval vignette which follows the top contour of the Osprey's wing.  Most people consider this work to be very peaceful and calming.

I still have a few prints of this drawing available.  If interested, please drop me a note.

On The Wing
Pencil 9 x 12"

This drawing used to be titled Ray's Hawk, named after the person I made the drawing for.  But too many people would comment that they'd never heard of that kind of a hawk before.  So I renamed the drawing to avoid the confusion, since the species is actually a red tailed hawk.

Eagle in Flight
Oil on Panel, 22 x 56"

I get a lot of requests for eagle pictures, though I prefer to do other kinds of birds myself.  Images of bald eagles are just so common in America, and they evoke a very different emotional reaction than what I normally look for.  However, they are marvelous animals, and I didn't want to avoid doing one.  I chose a fairly large size for this work.  It hangs high up on the wall of my living room, about fourteen feet above the floor. You have to crane your neck to look at it, which is as it should be.  This remains to date my only raptor portrait in color.

The Joy of Arctic Spring
Gouache 30 x 40"

One of my larger paintings, and the only artwork I've ever airbrushed. Not sure why I never did another one, as I rather enjoyed it. This scan doesn't do the painting justice, as there were violet highlights in the underside of the clouds that gave a lot of dimension to the picture, and the water dripping off the Orca's back really glistened. Paintings in this media need to be protected from air and dust, but I don't like using Plexiglas as it crazes over time.  So I put this piece behind glass. Thin glass of this size is hard to work with, and expensive, so the framing shop gave me a deal on a piece they had in the back. I didn't know it at the time, but it turns out the glass was defective, having irregularities across it's length. By accident, the wavier section of glass went against the water, and when you walked across the room, the waves almost looked like they were in motion. It was a subtle but magical effect. This was the first painting I sold for a good amount of money. Unfortunately, my son still hasn't forgiven me for selling it.  Lately, I agree with him, and wish I still had this piece.