Mourning Dove's Nest

"Mourning Dove's Nest"
5X7
Oil on Panel
NFS

There is a reason for this painting that looks like I am getting a jump on spring when, in fact, it is just the second day of January. Before Christmas I painted a Mourning Dove..."Turtle Dove"...for a nature theme of Christmas. Truth is I love painting nature themes a good bit of the time. There is a Guild show coming up requiring entries by the first of March. This Guild show is one of my favorites. It is held at the Schiele Museum of Natural History and the theme of the show is "A Natural View." None of the art is supposed to have anything man-made depicted. Au Naturel..so to speak. Back to the Mourning Dove...if you will scroll down a few posts you will see her. This painting of the nest is a companion to that. I am thinking I will have them framed in a double mat within one frame. I don't usually do that, but I wanted to celebrate the renewal of life with this idea. Hope I accomplished that. Can spring be far behind???

'One Turtle Dove'

"Christmas Turtle Dove"
8X10
Oil on Panel
NFS (for now)

Click on picture for a larger view.

Commonly known as Mourning Doves....my mother used to call them "Rain Doves" because they would always fly into the yard just before a rain came. Now I know them to also be the classic "Turtle Doves" from the 12 Days of Christmas. We have them hanging around our yard frequently. They are so beautiful and I love them, in spite of the efforts they make at grabbing the seeds we put out for the smaller songbirds. They waddle around and flee with noisy flapping when I let our dog out. Their colors are so subtle, yet I think they look very sophisticated in their soft browns and black spots. The blue around their eyes is a very beautiful blue...recalling that softest of sky meets the sea kind of blue.

Sorry for not keeping up with posts for a while. This thing with taking care of my Dad has really cramped my time. And while I am not painting as frequently, when I do have time, I am researching ideas and thinking of what to paint next. I recently went to a gallery crawl in Charlotte and feasted my eyes on wonderful works by other artists. And I keep looking at the websites of artists I admire, gathering as much as I can by studying their works. In fact, I think I have come up with a new malady....I am calling it "Admiration Paralysis." I can get so taken with other artists' work that I hit my head against the wall asking myself how could I ever be THAT good and WHY am I even doing this!!! But after beating myself up, I force myself back to the easel and tell myself just to dive in there and keep going. I am running out of time for Christmas cards...but may try to get this image done on a card to send. If not, I'll just send out some other cards I bought on stand-by.