Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The Magpie

I have a love/hate relationship with magpies.  On the one hand I find them annoying when it comes to attempting to attract songbirds to the yard because they tend to scare them all off.  A case in point is my determination to build a purple martin palace for my yard this past summer.  Well the magpie was not pleased and he pretty much told me so one summer morning when I came across him sitting on my wood pile.  We had a staring match for a good minute, which I found amazing because they are usually very shy of humans.  Looking at him I had a sense that he was telling me that he didn't appreciate being dive bombed by the purple martins who had taken over the yard.  Magpies are a very striking bird and I particularly enjoy seeing them in the winter, when their plumage really stands out. Had a hard time photographing this oil painting, I think the pearlescent paint was messing with my camera lense.

1 comment:

Michael R. Gaudet said...

Darrell, that is a sublime rendering of the magpie. Seeing as how he is set in such a glorious light/shadow atmosphere. Just a beautiful rendition of the shadows and light on the mauve snow! You are in your finest form with this one. Do I perceive bits of brilliant burnt orange peeking through the entire thing in the most painterly way? Methinks it is so!