Heron Fishing

Last weekend several artists got together for the Ontario meet. It was a wonderful weekend in which we shared both laughter and tears. There was a workshop on the Saturday led by Shelley Prior using a photo taken by Alan Wilson. Unfortunately I wasnt well enough to attend the actual worshop so I decided to paint my own version this weekend at home.

I have been working with one of my students on adapting reference photos to help convey different messages so I decided to use this as an exercise to show how to create a totally different interpretation of a reference photo. As a result my painting is completely different to those done in the workshop but it was enormous fun to create. I added in a fish using some other reference photos as guidlines and also completely changed the lighting both in the background and on the heron itself. I decided to use similar colours on the heron and in the background to help to create that calm early morning feel but  intoduced  different compliments to paint the fish to create drama and edge in this area.

So here is my version....

As the glow of the sunrise shines through the morning mists that linger on the calm waters of the lake, a heron wades through the water creating ripples that glisten in the muted sunlight. In his beak he proudly holds his first catch of the day pinioned on his razer sharp beak.

Its only a small painting, about 10.5 by 15 inches and it is painted on Arches 140lb cold press. It is painted using all transparent watercolours and the whites were either preserved using masking fluid or lifted using a magic eraser or craft knife.

Ona