The kestrel, kingfisher, heron, and red-winged blackbird are species that I love and are common where I live. They are not endangered, however, they do represent the concept of appreciating nature amid environmental degradation. I experience it with my own eyes in my city that is booming with development.
I see these birds’ habitats shrinking and being pushed further and further away with all the construction and city development going on. The process of living can be creative or destructive. It’s a balancing act city planners have. As an artist, I am also creative or destructive. I carve, burn, and sometimes rip materials in addition to painting. I created this video, posted on Facebook, for a professor friend’s class. The students are focusing on visual communication.
Kestrel
This Kestrel painting was created by burning and carving basswood, in addition to painting. You can see my joyful feelings particularly in the warm colors I’ve used, even in the kestrel’s plumage.
Kingfisher
Kingfisher makes use of calling attention to space as part of a habitat. The areas around the branches on which the kingfisher is perched are burnt under the layers of paint as intentional spaces of sky, in addition to the land and flora, that are essential to this bird’s survival.
Heron
Heron has a horizontal landscape for a calming and peaceful effect. The rich, saturated colors in the land and water and sky express the beauty of nature that human activity is encroaching on. Pollution is particularly a threat to the wetlands of these animals. The burning effect under the water is as if humans can affect the habitat as artists, and have the power to destroy it in a sudden stroke.
Red-Winged Blackbirds
Red-Winged Blackbirds have wild calls and are playful and vibrant. I used a technique called blind contour drawing in a playful way in creating this painting. I glued my eyes on photographs of the birds and drew them on paper without looking down at the page. This is a technique, popularized by Betty Edwards in her book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. This is a technique that helps activate the visual interpretation of the right hemisphere of the brain without allowing the more analytical left hemisphere to judge it. My intention was deep artistic appreciation of these creatures.
I painted and collaged papers around the blackbirds and ripped creatively and intentionally. Perhaps these funny characters are laughing that I was actually ripping them more room for their shrinking habitat!
Conclusion
I’ve expressed the message of appreciating nature amid environmental degradation in a couple ways: in my admiration of the beauty of these creatures and celebrating them, but also by potentially destructive energy used instead in a creative way as artist and steward of nature.
Check out these paintings and more like them under the Nature category on my website. Prints available!
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