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Wildlife Art by Barry Kent MacKay

Born Free USA's Canadian representative and senior program associate, Barry Kent MacKay, is a lifelong birder who has painted hundreds of portraits of birds (and other creatures) he has observed in the wild — in North America and farther afield. Find many of his artworks by using the pull-down and search functions below. Then for more information about the artwork that appears most prominently, click on its title below and then copy will appear below the thumbnail strip. If you are interested in purchasing any of the works that Barry is offering for sale (50 percent of all sales benefit Born Free USA), please e-mail him at barry@bornfreeusa.org

Category: 
  • Western North America, Central and South America<br />
10” X 15”.  Acrylic on illustration board.  Unframed.<br />
WOODPECKERS<br />
$240.00<br />
Artist’s Comments: This simple, approximately life-size vignette, shows the northern race, once known as the “California Woodpecker” and well-known throughout that state.<br />
  • South America<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard.  Framed<br />
KINGFISHERS<br />
Sold<br />
Artist’s comments: This was the first painting I ever did using “open” acrylics, which are designed to dry more slowly than regular acrylics.  I kept it simple, and chose a species from one of my favourite bird families to draw and paint, the kingfishers.<br />
  • North America and Mexico.<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard.  Framed.<br />
MAMMALS<br />
Sold<br />
Artist’s comments.  I donated this little portrait to a wildlife rehab centre, for fund-raising.  I have had a lot of interactions with bears and love to draw and paint them.<br />
  • Western North America<br />
9” X 12”.  Mixed media.  Framed.<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  This painting was used as a frontispiece in a major scientific journal, illustrating a paper about these wonderful birds, native to the Rocky Mountains, and first seen by me in British Columbia, in the winter.  But I also found breeding birds in California, and that was the inspiration for this painting of an adult bird in front of a nest of gaping babies.  The American Dipper lives only in streams and rivers, and is well known for its ability to “walk” on the bottom of swift streams.  Its dense plumage easily sheds water, and so even among the spray of rapids it can appear stone dry.   I love to paint baby birds and this is one of my favorite paintings, and one of my favorite bird species.  I’ve painted them and related species often, but this is the only painting where the nearby presence of water is implied by the overall wetness, but not shown.<br />
  • North and Central America<br />
Acrylic on illustration board<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA.<br />
Sold<br />
Artist’s comments:  Used as a cover for BirdWatcher’s Digest, and later sold at an art show in Ohio, sponsored by the same magazine.<br />
  • North, Central and South America.<br />
Mixed media.  8” X 10”.  Framed.<br />
NFS<br />
FLAMINGOS:    <br />
Artist’s comments:  This species has often been considered a subspecies of the paler Old World form.   I first saw it in the wild in the Galapagos Islands, but I have also seen a small flock that lived at the edge of the Florida Everglades.<br />
  • North, Central and South America, West Indies.<br />
12” X 16” mixed media. Framed<br />
Sold<br />
RAPTORS<br />
Artist’s comments:  This female American Kestrel is of the northern subspecies, found where I live.  I had a companion female American Kestrel for the 12 years of her life, when I was young, and we were closely bonded.  She spent many hours perched on my head, did not wear a diaper and I jokingly suggest that is why I never went bald.<br />
  • North, Central and South America, West Indies.<br />
Watercolour on paper.<br />
Sold<br />
RAPTORS<br />
Artist’s comments: This simple vignette shows a female of the subspecies of American Kestrel found in Hispaniola, West Indies, and was used as an illustration in a book on the birds of Hispaniola.<br />
  • North America<br />
Watercolour on paper<br />
$150.00<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
  • Central and South America<br />
63/4” X 12”.  Acrylic on compressed hardboard<br />
$225.00<br />
KINGFISHERS<br />
Artist’s comments: This kingfisher, painted life-size, is the smallest in the western hemisphere, not much larger than a hummingbird.<br />
  • North America<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  This species has a huge breeding range, mostly in boreal and mountain forests from the Yukon to Newfoundland, and south, in the east, to near the Gulf coast.  Migrants can show up anywhere, but mostly in the east.  The bird winters in Mexico, Central and South America and the West Indies.   As they flit amid dark foliage, in and out of shafts of sunlight, the males seem to glow with flame-coloured patches contrasting against velvety-jet-black.<br />
  • North America<br />
Mixed media on compressed hardboard<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  This painting was done to illustrate a scientific paper about the male plumage of this species.  Unlike our other warblers, the one year old (upper figure) does not have its full breeding plumage, but rather, it displays immature plumage mixed with some feathers of the full breeding plumage, as seen in the lower figure.<br />
  • North America<br />
12” X  9”.  Oil painting. Framed.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments: One of the best known and best loved of American birds, shown on my back lawn, looking for an earth worm snack.<br />
  • North America<br />
9” X 12”.  Gouache watercolour and colour pencil on paper.  Unframed<br />
$175.00<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
This simple vignette shows a male of the eastern subspecies in breeding plumage.
  • North America<br />
Watercolour on paper<br />
Sold<br />
WOODPECKERS<br />
A relatively little-seen resident of northern forests and mountains of western North America.   Some winters they show up in my region, in southern Ontario.
  • Eastern North America<br />
9” X 12”.  Acrylic on compressed hardboard.  Framed<br />
Sold<br />
SHOREBIRDS<br />
Artist’s comments:  This painting of a female American Woodcock with her brood was the cover of an issue of the Ontario Field Ornithologists.<br />
  • Eastern North America<br />
16” X  12”.  Acrylic on illustration board.  Unframed.<br />
$275.00<br />
SHOREBIRDS<br />
Artist’s comments:   American Woodcocks arrive in the spring where I live when bloodroots start to bloom, in April.   This shows one of my favourite birds with one of my favourite wildflowers, on a rainy early spring day.<br />
  • Native to western North America<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard<br />
$300.00<br />
This is for a cover of Ontario Field Ornithologists, and shows a species that is abundant in California, often spending winters where it is quite cold.  A rugged little bird, indeed.
  • West Indies<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Once put in the tanager family, euphonias are now considered to be more closely related to goldfinches.   This painting was published in a field guide, and shows the adult male, adult female and immature plumages.<br />
  • Southwestern U.S., Mexico, Central and South America<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper.<br />
Sold<br />
RAPTORS<br />
Artist’s comments:  I first saw this species in Ecuador, surely one of the most attractive of all our birds of prey.<br />
  • Northern hemisphere, high latitudes, wintering in the southern hemisphere, high latitudes.<br />
Acrylic on canvas.<br />
Sold.<br />
GULLS AND TERNS<br />
Artist’s comments:  After seeing these birds nesting in Labrador and Newfoundland I did this small painting, using a wet technique with acrylic paints on a textured surface.<br />
  • Hispaniola, West Indies.<br />
Acrylic on illustration board.<br />
Sold.<br />
OWLS<br />
Artist’s comments:  I have painted all the birds endemic to Hispaniola, for a field guide, although this painting also illustrated the cover of a scientific journal.   The species is closely related to the Barn Owl.<br />
  • Atlantic Puffin<br />
North Atlantic, including North America.<br />
12” X 16”.  Acrylic on compressed hardboard. Unframed.<br />
$300.00 <br />
SEABIRDS<br />
Artist’s comments:  The provincial bird of Newfoundland and Labrador.  This painting was used in a major scientific journal.
  • Extinct.  Formerly southeastern U.S., wintering in Cuba.<br />
Mixed media.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:   It’s believed that destruction to Cuban forests on the species’ wintering grounds, to make room to grow cane for sugar, led to the loss of this lovely little bird. <br />
  • Borneo, and southeast Asia.<br />
20” X 15”.  Mixed media.  Framed.<br />
$450.00<br />
KINGFISHERS<br />
Artist’s comments:  On the mainland, these birds have reddish-brown cheek patches, but  on the island of Borneo, the cheeks are black.  They are tiny birds, with a rather exotic, big-headed look, and bright blue bands on backs and wings, alternating with black.   My photo of the painting is rather pale, the actual painting shows the strongly rich coloring of the bird, and its jungle background.   I did the painting after my visit to Borneo, although the species is relatively little-known.<br />
  • Eurasia (but has occurred in North America)<br />
16” X 20”.  Acrylic on compressed hardboard.  Not framed.<br />
$650.00<br />
WATERFOWL OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:  This painting was reproduced as the cover of a journal featuring a description of the first Barnacle Goose, known to have flown from Europe, to be found in Ontario, which is why I put Canada Geese in the background, although Canada Geese are also now well established in Europe.<br />
  • North America<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard.<br />
Sold<br />
OWLS<br />
Artist’s comments:   While I tend to think of Barred Owls as occurring in the north, where I live, in winter, they are far more abundant in the southern U.S., where I’ve shown this bird, among the magnolias.<br />
  • Bateleur Eagle<br />
Africa<br />
Acrylic on compressed Hardboard<br />
Donated<br />
RAPTORS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:  This was a small painting I donated for fund-raising to an organization that raises money to drill wells for water to help women who otherwise must carry water very long distances in pots.  I  hope to do a life-size painting of the same species, in a more interesting pose.<br />
  • North America<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:   One of the species of warbler that commonly migrates through my area each spring and fall, and which is noted for its appetite for spruce budworm on its forested nesting grounds.<br />
  • New Guinea and nearby islands<br />
10” X 8” Mixed media. Framed<br />
$450.00<br />
DOVES AND PIGEONS<br />
Artist’s comments: This is just one of a large group of related doves that have bright colours and patterns, no more beautiful than any other, but very beautiful indeed.<br />
  • Eurasia<br />
10” X 9”.  Acrylic on compressed hardboard.  Not framed.<br />
$150.00<br />
GALLIFORMES (GROUSE, PHEASANTS, QUAIL AND RELATED BIRDS).<br />
Artist’s comments:  This small study shows a male bird in the melting snow of late winter, during part of its elaborate breeding display.<br />
  • Northern hemisphere, including North America<br />
16” X 19”.  Acrylic on compressed hardboard.  Not framed.<br />
$450.00<br />
WATERFOWL OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments: Approximately life-size, this painting shows a female and her brood and was used for the cover of a journal featuring the first record of Black Scoters nesting in the province of Ontario.<br />
  • Northern hemisphere, including North America.<br />
Watercolour on paper.<br />
Sold<br />
GULLS AND TERNS<br />
Artist’s comments:  This study attempts to do nothing more than celebrate the lovely grace and elegance of this species.<br />
  • Northern hemisphere, including North America.<br />
12” X 9”.  Mixed media.  <br />
Sold<br />
GULLS AND TERNS<br />
Artist’s comments:  This nesting bird was based on a lot of observations made during my youth; sadly these birds no longer nest in the marshes I spent so much time in, in those days, and are declining in numbers.<br />
  • Black Woodpecker<br />
Eurasia<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard<br />
Sold<br />
WOODPECKERS<br />
Artist’s comments:   The curved heads form the suggestion of a stylized heart as these two birds bond in the spring woods of northern Europe.<br />
  • Borneo<br />
15” X 11”.  Mixed media.  Framed.<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:   This is one of those birds that is easy to overlook, since it just looks all over black until you get a good look in good light.  And I managed to do that during a stay in Borneo.  This is one of very few “Old World” orioles I’ve painted.  They are a family of birds that is only found in the eastern hemisphere, and is quite unlike the birds we call “orioles” in the Americas.  This painting, approximately life-size, is a “vignette”, a painting with minimal background, more of a study.<br />
  • North America (wintering in the tropics)<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  The Black and White Warbler is noted for its habit of “creeping” on the sides of large branches and the trunks of trees, not unlike a nuthatch.  I showed that habit in this painting of a male and a female bird.<br />
  • Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo<br />
9” X 12”.  Acrylic on compressed hardboard.  Framed<br />
$300.00<br />
BROADBILLS <br />
Artist’s comments:  The word “droll” was designed for this little bird, who looks like he was designed by a Walt Disney cartoonist.   I love broadbills, a group of tropical birds from Asia and Africa, and have painted several species.<br />
  • Central America<br />
9” X 12”.  Mixed media.  Framed.<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:   This is the most southern, and least known, of the silky-flycatchers, a family of three bird species traditionally thought to be rather closely related to waxwings.   The other two are the Phainopepla, which occurs in the southwestern U.S., and the Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher, of Mexico and Central America.  In fact, I was on an expedition in Costa Rica that found the first nest formally described by science.   The species is rather calm, almost phlegmatic in its movements, and usually occurs in thick vegetation.   It tends to be rather plump-looking in appearance, and its beauty rather subtle.
  • North America<br />
9” X 12.  Acrylic on compressed hardboard<br />
Sold<br />
WOODPECKERS<br />
This species is often found in burned-over forest, as I have tried to suggest with the background to the painting.   It is closely related to the American Three-toed Woodpecker.<br />
  • Northern hemisphere, including North America.<br />
12” X 14”.  Mixed media.  Framed.<br />
$400.00<br />
SHOREBIRDS<br />
Artist’s comments:  In North America we call this species the Black-bellied Plover, but in English speaking countries of Europe and Asia it is called the Grey Plover.  In summer, this species, which nests in northern tundra, has a lovely black and white mottled pattern on the back, and a black face, throat and belly.  But then, after nesting, it moults into a grayer plumage, and it is that plumage that gives the species its alternative English name.  I have shown a bird in transition between the breeding plumage, and the plumage it has in winter.  Interestingly, the white parts of feathers abrades more readily that the dark, pigmented parts, and creates a bit of a scalloped edge to some of the feathers, a detail I included in the painting.   It’s a simple study, backlit, with the water done partly in acrylic, and partly in color pencil.   <br />
  • Northern Hemisphere, including North America<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard<br />
Sold<br />
SHOREBIRDS<br />
In this painting of a trio of birds in breeding plumage I’ve shown the variation in colour and pattern that can occur.   They don’t all look exactly alike.<br />
  • Central and South America<br />
Acrylic on paper.  Not framed.<br />
$400.00<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:  I got to know these birds rather well during visits to Costa Rica.   They often sit still enough to allow me to sketch them, or move methodically through the trees, snatching up large insects of small fruits.<br />
  • North America, wintering in the tropics.<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper.<br />
Sold.<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA.<br />
I think I’ve probably painted this species more often than any other of our other, more colourful, native warblers.<br />
  • North America, wintering in the tropics.<br />
Gouache Watercolour on paper.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  The glowing, golden-orange throat of the adult male is unmistakable.  Fortunately these truly beautiful little birds are not rare in eastern North America on migration, or in the northern forests when they are nesting.<br />
  • North America, wintering in the tropics.<br />
12” X 9”.  Mixed media.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments: Interesting that the female Blue Grosbeak is brown, and so camouflaged when she tends the babies, and yet the brightly conspicuous male also feeds the young, as I illustrated in my painting.<br />
  • North America<br />
12” X 9”.  Acrylic on compressed hardboard<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
In this painting I treated the fall maple leaves impressionistically, swirling behind the steadily posed bird, a species that is very common in eastern North America, and well-known by everyone.<br />
  • North America<br />
Acrylic on illustration board.<br />
NFS<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
This painting was done to illustrate a cover of Ontario Field Ornithologist’s journal.<br />
  • Eurasia<br />
8” X 8”<br />
Acrylics on compressed hardboard.  Not framed.<br />
$100.00<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Blue Tits are a chickadee-relative that is common in Europe, where I’ve often seen them, and known for its charm and intelligence.<br />
  • North America<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
I painted this tiny bird life-size, on a sprig of trumpet vine growing in my garden.  These little birds are becoming increasing common in southern Ontario, probably as a result of a warming climate.<br />
  • North America<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
My mother was a pioneer wildlife rehabilitator and we raised quite a few baby Blue Jays, like these ones.<br />
  • Central and South America<br />
12” X 9”.  Mixed media.  Framed.<br />
$600.00<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
When I was a child I found a small book in the adult section of the library that had pen and ink drawings of non-North American birds.  In those distant days there were none of the many books on birds of South America and other regions now available and I was passionate about learning what I could about all birds.  One of the drawings showed something called a “Boat-billed Flycatcher”, and that image stuck with me, as it seemed to me that the bird epitomized what I thought the lesser known “exotic” birds should be.   Years later I saw the species, in the wild, first in Ecuador and again in Central America.  The subspecies shown is from Ecuador and hangs in my hallway as a reminder that childhood dreams can come true.<br />
  • Central and South America<br />
10” X 8”.  Mixed media.<br />
Donated to a charity fund-raiser.<br />
HERONS<br />
Artist’s comments:  I think of all the herons, these are my favourite to see, draw and paint, and I donated this simple study to raise money to protect habitat in Costa Rica, where I first saw wild Boat-billed Herons.<br />
  • Northeastern U.S.<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard.<br />
Sold<br />
REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS.<br />
Artist’s comments:  This tiny turtle, the smallest in North America, is endangered, in part because of loss of habitat, and in part because of the exotic pet trade.   <br />
  • North America<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:   A species of the boreal forests dominated by black spruce, tamarack and balsam firs.   <br />
  • Hispaniola, West Indies<br />
Mixed media on paper<br />
Sold<br />
TODIES<br />
Artist’s comments:   These tiny, gem-coloured birds belong to a small family of birds entirely restricted to the West Indies.<br />
  • North America<br />
Mixed media on paper.  9” X 12”.<br />
Sold<br />
RAPTORS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:   Each autumn huge numbers of these small raptors migrate overhead in flocks that can number in the thousands, unnoticed by most people.  But I have shown an adult male in the forests north of me, where they nest.<br />
  • Eastern Asia<br />
Mixed Media on paper.  12” X 9”.  Unframed.<br />
$275.00<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:  I love bulbuls, a family of birds we don’t have in the western hemisphere.  This species was common and easily observed during a visit to Japan, and in the background I worked in a little Japanese architecture, very subtly.<br />
  • South America<br />
Mixed media on compressed hardboard<br />
Sold<br />
OWLS<br />
Artist’s comments:  This is one of the world’s least known birds, very small, and quite beautiful.  I had absolutely no reason to paint it other than the fact that want to paint as many owl species as I can...they are a wonderful group of birds to portray and celebrate.<br />
  • North America<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard. 14” X 11”. Unframed.<br />
$350.00<br />
WATERFOWL OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  I’ve painted this species before, and hope I will do so again, but rarely have I seen artists show the female with her charming little brood.<br />
  • North, Central and South America<br />
Oil painting<br />
Sold<br />
OWLS<br />
Artist’s comments.   This species is now endangered in Canada, but you can still see them in many parts of the western U.S., and Florida.  They nest in burrows, including old burrows originally built by prairie dogs.<br />
  • Galapagos Islands<br />
Mixed media on compressed hardboard.  $150.00.  Unframed. <br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:   This is one of the famous “Darwin’s Finches”, found only in the Galapagos Islands, where they are often seen, as I have shown this bird, probing in the blossoms of the famous Galapagos Opuntia cactus trees.<br />
  • Southwestern North America<br />
Acrylic on illustration board.<br />
Sold.<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:   One of my very favourite birds both to see and to sketch and paint, but to see them I have to go to California.   <br />
  • North America<br />
Watercolour on paper<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  I painted this to illustrate a small article I wrote for the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) which works to try to protect migrating birds from hitting tall buildings and windows.<br />
  • North America<br />
Watercolour on paper<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  While quite a few species have the bulk of their breeding range in Canada, only a couple are named for the country.  Numbers of this species have declined, and it is listed as threatened in Ontario, although I see them every spring.<br />
  • North America<br />
Watercolour on paper<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  This species mostly nests the boreal forests of Canada, and winters in Central and South America and the West Indies, but the first specimen known to science was collected in Cape May, New Jersey, where it was not again seen for many decades.<br />
  • North America, West Indies. Unframed<br />
Mixed media.<br />
$150.00<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  This is a simple vignette of an elegant and common species, based on a series of field sketches.<br />
  • North America<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  Like all who know them I love our wonderfully varied warblers.  Ceruleans are in decline in much of their reason, but seem to be doing very well in eastern Ontario, where they particularly like woodlots edging on rivers and lakes.<br />
  • Borneo<br />
Mixed media on illustration board.  10” X 14”.  $350.00<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:  This beautiful, brightly coloured songbird is one of the more common “garden” birds in Borneo.<br />
  • North America<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  When Audubon roamed a more primeval North America he only found this bird once, on the south shore of Lake Erie.  But now it is quite common, and no one knows why it was so rare two hundred years ago.<br />
  • North America<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard.<br />
Sold<br />
SWIFTS AND HUMMINGBIRDS<br />
Artist’s comments:  This was a commissioned painting, given as a Christmas present to a person who studied swifts.   Swifts, like other aerial insectivores, are in serious declines in parts of their range.<br />
  • North America<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper.  <br />
Sold<br />
CAPRIMULGIDS<br />
Artist’s comments:  These large relatives of the more widely known Common Nighthawk and Whip-poor-will, are very cryptically coloured, but when painted as a vignette with a white background, one can see and admire all the intricate patterning of their beautiful plumage.<br />
  • Western North America<br />
17” X 12”. Mixed media.  Framed.<br />
WATERFOWL OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
The term “wildlife artist” is one I don’t much like, as it generates connotations of somewhat photographic paintings of bellowing moose, ducks flying across sunsets and pheasants flying up out of fields of corn.  I try to get more intimate with my subjects, to pay tribute to them as individuals, and especially to celebrate the things I’ve seen.  The male Cinnamon Teal in breeding plumage is one of the most colorful of our native waterfowl.  This painting is life size and shows a plump male, perched calmly perched on one foot in a shallow, prairie slough, alert, but not disturbed, and seemingly oblivious to the beauty inherent to his richly beautiful plumage.<br />
  • Southeast Asia<br />
Acrylic on illustration board.  11” X 15”.  Unframed.<br />
$125.00<br />
KINGFISHERS<br />
Artist’s comments.  A very widely distributed species, painted just because I enjoy drawing and painting kingfishers.<br />
  • Eurasia<br />
Mixed media<br />
Sold<br />
KINGFISHERS<br />
Artist’s comments:   This is a widely distributed and very beautiful little kingfisher, the only species normally found in Europe, where it is simply known as “the” kingfisher.<br />
  • Northern hemisphere including North America<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard.<br />
Sold<br />
WATERFOWL OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  This is the pacific coast race of one of the species, and was used as a front cover of The Auk, a prestigious scientific journal.  <br />
  • Northern hemisphere including North America<br />
Oil painting<br />
Sold<br />
WATERFOWL OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  A simple study, in oils, of a female goldeneye on wet mud.<br />
  • Eurasia, but widely distributed elsewhere, including North America<br />
Arcylic on illustration board.<br />
NFS<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:   One of our best known birds, it has white or buff tips to the feathers in fall, which wear off in the late winter, revealing the glossily iridescent bases of the feathers, as shown in this vignette.  And the beak turns a bright yellow, the feet red, to complete transformation.<br />
  • North America<br />
Gouache watercolour on paper.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments: When I was a child I called the male of this lovely little bird “the Lone Ranger”, after the mythical western hero who wore a mask.   They love marshes and reeds and are very common, if you know where to look, or recognize their distinctive song.<br />
  • North America<br />
Mixed media.<br />
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RAPTORS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  A bold, beautiful, crow-sized bird who, each winter, visits my garden to prey upon Mourning Doves.  The scene portrayed is one that is very familiar to me; the painting was used as a cover for a journal published by the Ontario Field Ornithologists.<br />
  • North America<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard.  9” X 71/2”.  Unframed.<br />
$175.00<br />
RAPTORS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments.  This is an immature bird, a portrait that was published in a scientific journal.   I enjoy doing portraits of birds and mammals.<br />
  • Borneo; Southeast Asia<br />
24” X 16”.  Acrylic on compressed board.<br />
$400.00<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:  The Crested Jay is in the family of birds that includes ravens, crows, magpies, nutcrackers and, of course, jays, but unlike most of them, it lacks tufts of bristly feathers over the nostrils.  But of course only a few of us are likely to notice that, what amazes everyone is the odd tuft of elongated feathers on the head.  There is no other bird’s crest quite like it.  I saw the Crested Jay briefly, in Borneo, and the painting shows the subspecies that is found on the island.  Mainland birds tend to be less reddish-brown.  Even though it was among the least colorful of birds I saw on Borneo, it was exciting even though the tall crest imparts an unreal appearance to the bird.
  • Crimson Rosella<br />
Australia<br />
Oil painting;  Unframed.<br />
$300.00<br />
PARROTS<br />
Artist’s comments:  The rosellas are a group of highly colourful parrots found in Australia, but widely bred in captivity. <br />
  • North America<br />
9” X 12”.  Acrylic <br />
$375.00<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
There is a little story behind this small study of a specific bird in a specific time and place.  The time was the month of February, many years ago, and the place was Unionville, my home town, part of Markham, Ontario.  I was following a creek called Bruce Creek, feeling a little depressed by the bleakness of the day, the dull snow had experienced a thaw and was refrozen, everything seemed bleak.  But during then I saw a Dark-eyed Junco perched atop an old root, just as he is painted in this study.  And then I saw a lovely red Northern Cardinal, and finally, in the creek itself, a Hooded Merganser.  I painted all three, in three different paintings…nothing fancy…just a simple reminder of the warm, animate, wonderful little creatures that so cheered me on a bleak, mid-winter day.<br />
  • North America, including the West Indies<br />
Mixed media.<br />
Sold<br />
CORMORANTS AND ANHINGAS<br />
Artist’s comments:   I have painted this species several times.  We have fought, often successfully, to reduce or stop culling of this species, widely reviled because it is incorrectly seen as a major competitor for fish wanted by anglers, or because its excrement can damage foliage.<br />
  • North Atlantic, including North America.<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard.<br />
Sold<br />
SEABIRDS<br />
Artist’s comments:   This shows the species in winter plumage.  These are small and sturdy members of the auk family, that breeds in the high arctic.<br />
  • Northern Hemisphere, including North America<br />
12” X 15”.  Mixed media.  Framed.<br />
SEABIRDS<br />
Artist’s comments:  The first Dovekie I ever saw in life was a lovely bird in breeding plumage, swimming in St. John’s Harbour, Newfoundland.   But there is a question of whether or not these birds, which nest in the high arctic, nest in Canada.  I think it is  likely, because we know they have been found nesting across the Davis Strait, in Greenland, very close to the easternmost Canadian arctic archipelago.  I painted the birds as they would appear on their nesting colony, and then I did a separate painting of the same species, in the quite different winter plumage.  It sold, but I still have the summer birds, the ones in the foreground approximately life size, which is very small, not much bigger than a starling.<br />
  • North America<br />
Mixed media<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:   The Eastern Bluebird became quite rare in the 20th century, but is rebounding thanks to an aggressive and widespread effort to provide suitable nesting boxes for them to nest in.<br />
  • North America<br />
Mixed media.<br />
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SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  This is the only one of the three bluebird species that is found in eastern North America.  The blue back and red breast make a lovely colour combination.<br />
  • North America<br />
Mixed media<br />
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REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS<br />
I was commissioned to paint this for the late Susan Hagood, a champion of animals and good friend who rescued many turtles and other animals, and sadly passed away far too young, from cancer, late in 2011.   It was a gift for her graduation.  She is sadly missed.<br />
  • North America<br />
15” X 20”.  Acrylic on compressed hardboard.<br />
$500.00<br />
OWLS<br />
The Eastern Screech-Owl is widely distributed in North America, and lives in places such as orchards and parklands, often near human habitation.  Even so, they are easily overlooked.  There are two color morphs, and where I live the red morph, shown in my painting, is the one less often seen.  One fall day, taking a break from a walk, I was admiring some wild grape leaves intertwined with Virginia creeper, when I noticed a stray feather.  It was an owl feather.  I realized how difficult it would be to find an Eastern Screech-Owl in the foliage, even a red one, and indeed, I failed, then, to do so.  But as an artist I had the option of adding the owl, knowing, from the feather, that it was quite appropriate to do so.<br />
  • North America.  Extinct.<br />
Mixed media.<br />
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SHOREBIRDS<br />
Artist’s comments:  I spent a lot of time searching for this species among huge flocks of the related Whimbrel, in Newfoundland and Labrador, where we know it once occurred on migration, to no avail.  It is generally believed that the last of these birds died out sometime in the 1960s.  It seems unlikely that any still survive, but once they were abundant and hunted in huge numbers.<br />
  • Eurasia<br />
Mixed media on paper<br />
NFS<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:   This little painting, with acrylics and watercolours on rough-textured paper, shows a scene from France, of an adult Eurasian Dipper (sometimes called the Dipper, European Dipper, Common Dipper, White-throated Dipper or Water Ousel) with one of her recently fledged babies, in the typical habitat for all dippers, a rocky stream.<br />
  • Eurasia<br />
Mixed media on paper<br />
NFS<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:  This vignette, painted to illustrate a book, shows the subspecies of Eurasian Dipper that is found on the British Isles, Cinclus cinclus gularis, and is nearly identical to the mainland European subspecies.  Dippers are well-known for their ability to literally walk underwater, on the bottom of stream-beds, where they search for their prey, such as caddies fly larvae and other aquatic insects.<br />
  • Eurasia<br />
Mixed media<br />
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SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:  This little study shows the subspecies found in the United Kingdom.  They are closely related to the American Dipper, but more boldly patterned.<br />
  • Eurasia<br />
Mixed media on paper<br />
NFS<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:  This vignette shows the subspecies of Eurasian Dipper, Cinclus cinclus leucogaster, that lives in the cold, rugged mountains from northern Afghanistan to eastern Siberia.  It has far more white on its belly than any other population of this widely-distributed species.<br />
  • Eurasia<br />
Mixed media on paper<br />
NFS<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD<br />
Artist’s comments:  Here I have painted the nominate subspecies, Cinclus cinclus cinclus, of the widely distributed Eurasian Dipper.  “Nominate subspecies” only means that it was the first of the various geographic variations to be formally named, back in 1758.  It is widely distributed in mainland Europe, and lacks the touch of rufous on the belly found on birds that nest in the United Kingdom.<br />
  • Asia<br />
20” X 15”.  Mixed media.  Framed.<br />
$700.00<br />
WATERFOWL OF THE WORLD<br />
Waterfowl are endlessly fascinating, and most of the world’s species I’ve seen in captive collections.  But the real thrill is seeing them in the wild, and I had the pleasure of seeing wild Falcated Ducks during a visit to Japan.  They female, shown to the left in my painting, is similar to many other ducks, but the male is extremely distinctive, with a bold lace pattern on the body, and those odd, curled, pointed feathers at the rear of the body that give the species its name.  Falcated means “sycle-shaped”.  I painted the pair, in shallow water, just as I had seen them, approximately life size.
  • North America<br />
Mixed media.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:  This is one of those little birds that non-birders almost never notice.  They love sandy fields, and often sing from an elevated perch.<br />
  • Eurasia<br />
14” X 18”.  Acrylic.  Framed.<br />
SONGBIRDS OF THE WORLD.<br />
Years ago I was phoned by a gentleman who claimed he had a Fieldfare in his back garden.  Knowing the species is native to Europe, I doubted him, but drove out to check.  He showed me a sketch and it was a Fieldfare, but not proof.  I went back a few days later and was surprised to see that it was, indeed, a Fieldfare, the first I had ever seen, but unmistakable.  But the gentleman didn’t want birders showing up because his wife was ill and fragile.   I reported the nearest major intersection to where the bird was appearing, but many birders wound up hating me for not giving exact directions.  Of course the bird moved around a lot, as I knew it would, and fed on mountain ash berries, as I also reported, and eventually birders found it, and hundreds came to see it.  My painting shows the bird as I first saw it.  I have seen many since, all of them in Europe.<br />
  • Mexico, Central America, sometimes extreme southern U.S.<br />
Mixed media.<br />
Sold<br />
SONGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA<br />
Artist’s comments:   These “tanagers” are now believed to be related to grosbeaks.  They are very rare and localized in the U.S., found, only occasionally, at the southern tip of Texas.<br />
  • Western North America<br />
Mixed media.<br />
Sold<br />
OWLS<br />
Artist’s comments:  One of our smallest owls, found among some of our biggest trees, in western North America.<br />
  • North America<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard. 17” X 201/2”. Unframed.<br />
$350.00<br />
Acrylic on compressed hardboard<br />
GULLS AND TERNS<br />
Artist’s comments:   Unlike the very similar Arctic and Common Terns, the Forster’s nests in marshes.  I painted this as a cover for the journal of the Ontario Field Ornithologists.<br />
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