Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Wood Duck Reflections

Wood duck acrylic painting
I'm happy to say I've ticked another item off my "to do" list today. I just completed this 8" x 10" acrylic study of a male wood duck. I am entering another duck stamp contest for the state of Washington and felt I needed to get a few more waterfowl paintings under my belt before I did that. 
Wood Duck Reflections - Acrylic 8 x 10"

 I chose to paint a wood duck for several reasons. First, they are incredibly beautiful birds with every color of the rainbow in their feathers. Under the right light they glow with iridescence. I thought it would be a great challenge to try and capture that iridescence with paint. Second, while duck hunting recently my husband harvested a male wood duck, so along with my reference photos I had a bird in hand to study up close. It's always so much easier to understand the colors, textures and details of the feathers when you can see them in 3-D as opposed to a flat photo. 
Photo of a female wood duck

The third reason came to me as I sat down to write this. A memory from my past floated to the surface that I haven't thought about in years. My father raised exotic birds in our backyard when I was a child and had purchased a pair of wood ducks for my sister and I to raise. Mine was the male. Sometimes we took these birds to game bird shows where they would be judged for prizes much like the animals are judged at fairs. Our pair of wood ducks got first prize one year. I even got a trophy! 

"Wood Duck Reflections" is currently available through my Daily Paintworks website. http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/catherine-temple/wood-duck-reflections/534432 
 With the holidays just around the corner it might make a nice present for a waterfowl hunter or bird watcher.