Flamingo-Summer Painting

Summer is here! I finally had some time between chasing two one year olds around to actually finish a painting. As I hadn't painted in a while, I chose to work on a relatively simple image in oils to get back into the swing of things, as they say. I went through a phase in elementary school where I was obsessed with flamingos and chose them as the topic of various reports and projects, so this is also kind of a nostalgic piece. I've now moved on to a larger, more challenging painting, which I'll hopefully finish in a few weeks.

"Flamingo Blues" oil paint by Katherine Lehr, June 2016

More Summer Painting: Owl #2

"Short-eared Owl" acrylic, 2014

Since I enjoyed working on my first owl painting (a barn owl as seen below), I thought: why not do another owl painting? There is something about owl faces and the line of their wings that really draws my eye. I am not a bird-watcher or raptor expert, but I believe that this one is a Short-eared Owl, which are more commonly seen in the UK. 

Here are the two owl paintings together:

 

Barn Owl Painting

I have my mom to thank for inspiring this painting. She sent me photos of some animals that she had seen while out in Tucson, Arizona. I was immediately drawn to the photos of the barn owl and decided to make this the subject of my next painting. I kept the colors fairly close to the real owl rather than adding or exaggerating the color as I often do in my paintings of other animals. I liked the contrast of the bright white owl glowing against the blue sky, so I tried to keep that feeling in my painting.

"Tucson Barn Owl" acrylic, 2013

Island Rooster Painting

I finally got a chance to finish the rooster painting I've been working on. We saw a ton of roosters walking around the island of Kauai. At first it was really strange to see a rooster walking across the sand at the beach, but it became commonplace after we'd been there a few days. I really enjoyed how colorful some of the roosters were, so I decided to do a painting of a Kauai rooster by the beach. I'd love to live on Kauai for a few months every year and just paint!

"Island Rooster" acrylic on canvas,  2012

New Painting from this Weekend

I've just finished up a rainforest art project with my 4th grade students and I was inspired to create this scarlet macaw painting.

  
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