Duck, Duck, Goose

My childhood friend Don sent this photo to me as an e-mail attachment. He titled the e-mail, 'Duck, Duck, Goose'. It was a good choice as a title because it fits the new painting well; as you will see.

I asked readers to imagine what combining the photo of Sandhill Cranes, and the ill-fated Canada Goose painting would look like. This is a literal interpretation of the idea. I should have stuck with that idea.

I did end up putting some Pintails in the background. This is an extreme close-up.

Most of them are sleeping.

The final version of the geese. I wish that I would have added finer brush strokes and more delicate detail to the geese.

The completed painting. It is 16x20". The actual painting has much richer colors than the photo indicates. (Typical for Blogger to fade the colors when I upload the photos)

So what happened to the cranes?

I sketched them out and started painting. Right away I realized that there was too much conflict between the cranes and the geese.  The painting was going to look too busy. The cranes had to go.

Now I repeat the title of the last post; How does this happen? 

I started out with the intention of painting waxwings. Then I changed the painting to Sandhill Cranes and decided to add Canada Geese in shadow to help frame the cranes. The cranes went away and were replaced by ducks.

My next painting is intended to be Sea Otters. It will probably end up as Giraffes, or who knows what?

Sept. 15th was the day that the Sea Lion Gallery in Homer closed for the season. Gary managed to sell this one last painting on that day. Remington Firearms put this painting on their 2014 Wildlife Calendar.

Gary sold more of my paintings in his gallery this year than he has in any other year. I have my work cut out for me to replace all those paintings for next year. Let's hope the trend continues.