Amazing hummingbirds

Inspired by my husband James's wonderful photographs of a male and female ruby throated humming bird (two of which you can see below) I just knew that these magical birds had to be on my list of things to paint.



James and I have loved watching the hummers come to our feeders over the last couple of months, flitting in at high speed, hovering and feeding and then leaving. We have often greedily wished more than the one pair would use the feeders. This gave me the idea for my painting. At the beginning of the season when food was scarce the male and the female both loved the convenience of the feeder. We mixed up a 3:1 sugar solution which was rich in energy for them.... definitely high calorie food on the go, sort of like a fast food drive through for us.... so I decided to create a painting using the idea of a 'Fast food fly through'. I wanted to create a drive through queue but with flying/hovering hummingbirds waiting patiently or impatiently for their turn at the feeder. Its taken me a couple days playing around with different compositions using photoshop. The painting will be 14 by 30 inches. I just need to draw in my background now which will be overhanging leaves. I hope this will help to give scale to the tiny hummingbirds.


Ona