Overcoming the little and not-so-little adversities in life takes perseverance and patience, I've found.
I'm back in my studio now, painting, drawing, sketching. Renewed vitality, interest and energy has me at my easel looking closely at birds, again. Incredible creatures with above-average intelligence, they inspire me with their beauty and abilities we somehow overlook or fail to notice. Ravens, especially, the smartest of all flying creatures, those wolves of the air, inspire me to paint their individual characters.
We have two ravens who live in our area, or, rather, we live in theirs. My husband has lately taken to befriending them with eggs and other offerings, placed on a nearby post, in order to tease them into letting him take pictures of them. It's sort of a trade; we give them treats, they let us take their picture. They always take the goodies, and sometimes even caw their "thanks". But only occasionally do they let us take their picture. They seem to "know" the camera is there, even hidden in a blind, even set on "automatic" with no human present. They have incredible eyesight. Bernd Heinrich says they can see for a distance of two miles, accurately! Hard for some to believe, but they also seem to possess a "second sight"of sorts, a telepathy that Rupert Sheldrake describes in his many intriguing books like "Dogs Who Know When Their Owners are Coming Home", and "The Sense of Being Stared At" along with "The New Science of Life" that corresponds with his theory of morphic resonance. Fascinating stuff! And makes perfect sense to those of us who know that life is more than the material.
I'm also painting cranes. Sandhill cranes who winter at the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge in Socorro, NM have been the focus of our many trips down there in the fall. I'm developing two paintings right now, and I'll post the sketches, preliminary drawings and underpaintings that I've done so far, so you can see what actually goes into producing an oil painting (in part, to answer the oft asked question, "How long did it take you to paint that?"). And I just this day received notice that two of my crane paintings were accepted into the national juried show, "Encantada", sponsored by the Rio Grande Art Association. It will be July 10-26 at the Fine Arts Bldg at the EXPO New Mexico in Albuquerque.
Here are the two finished crane paintings that will be in the show:
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| Lone Crane Still Water, 14" x 14" Oil on Canvas, Framed, $650. copyright 2015 K Widger |
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| Evening Preen, 14" x 14" Oil on Canvas, Framed, $650. copyright 2015 K Widger |
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