Life is Sweet

Every Spring I hang my hummingbird feeder on my kitchen window and look forward to the return of these beautiful and amazing wonders of the world.  One year I stood very still near the feeder (for a long time!) with my hand resting on the perch.  What a thrill it was when one of the tiny birds landed on my finger and stayed there while enjoying the sugar water that I had prepared.  Life is sweet!

Here is my painted version of two of those kitchen window visitors...

...and these are the reference photos that I used:

To create a stronger composition and to give a sense of story to the paintings when they are hung together, I made several intentional decisions: 

- chose small, 6x6 canvases to focus more intimately on each delicate hummingbird

- reversed the direction of the female bird so that she was facing her sweetheart

- replaced the feeder with impatiens from my backyard 

Here's the edited photo I ended up using for one of my references:

And here are the two little paintings in progress:

I really enjoyed painting the reflected color on the belly of the female ruby-throated hummingbird.  Since she doesn't have a red throat like her male counterpart, it was a great way to give her more color! 

Life is Sweet II, 6x6 oil (sold)

Life is Sweet I, 6x6 oil (sold)