In this section are copies of original works of art. All of them are dedicated to helping us live according to unconditional love and compassion, which is the foundation of our peaceful means of bringing true and lasting peace to all of God's creatures, whether they are human beings or other animals.
(Artwork - 081)
Elegant Tern
(Thalasseus elegans)
The Elegant Tern world population is believed to be no more than 90,000,
and possibly less. They breed along the coast of California and Baja
California, and winter further south, along the cost of South America,
although they may disperse some distance.
In fact the reason I painted it was to illustrate the cover of a journal
featuring an article about a lone bird that showed up on the Niagara River,
between Ontario and New York State, last November. I used photos
of that bird to carefully render the same winter plumage in my painting,
although that bird had a broken outer wing feather, which, using artistic
license, I “repaired”.
I kept it simple as it is to be a cover illustration.
I have seen large numbers of these birds in southern California, and always
assumed that if I ever were to paint one, I’d do a grouping of them, on the
ground, perhaps posed on driftwood and sand or by a tidal pool. However, it seemed more appropriate to show this November bird alone and in
flight, as the one who showed up was, flying above the Niagara River.
The painting is approximately life size and was done in acrylics on
compressed hardboard.
Copyright © Barry Kent MacKay
Barry describes himself as a Canadian artist/writer/naturalist.
See his website:
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