After painting the cardinals last fall, I wanted to try a more exotic bird species. There are some amazing birds out there! Since I had never seen one of these beautiful birds in the wild, I used a combination of a number of photos I found on line as a basis for the bird and the background. This site has a striking quetzal photo and some interesting information.
The quetzal lives in the canopy of the rainforest and a loves to eat wild avocados, so I am showing him (yes, it is a male quetzal) in that setting. The style is not completely realistic but I have tried to show the quirky appearance of this bird and get something of the iridescent shimmer of the feathers. I may yet make some tweaks before I decide that the painting is finished and sign it (beyond the digital signature shown here).
Hope this brings some warmth to the winter deep freeze so many are experiencing!
UPDATE: New poem from Tom in the comments. It took longer than usual to get back to the right mindset for writing poetry that would match a painting of a quetzal. Happy you’re back in the mood – thanks Tom!
Beneath the empty tropical blue sky
beneath the canopy of hungry leaves
beneath the cloak of feathers brightly dyed
there beats a heart of peerless peace and ease
within a breast of red a coat might envy
below a head of strangely fuzzy green
above a tail that causes quite a frenzy
whene’er a milliner comes on the scene.
Yet high upon his branch the quetzal calm
surveys with dignity and steady gaze
gripping with uniquely trogon palm
well-hidden in the forest-foam of baize.
Such beauty isn’t made for human sight
but for his dowdy love in jungle night.
poem (c) 2015 TJ Radcliffe
painting (cc) 2015 Hilary Farmer
Lots of depth. In peripheral vision, it feels like the background has a 3D quality to it. Impressive!
Impressive specie of bird too, worth googling!
Thanks, Max!
Hilary, you have really captured the goofy essence of the bird…..good job! And thank you for reminding us all that there is a bird in the wild, resplendent in a longish green brush cut. What fun!
Thanks Les! It was fun to paint 🙂
Beneath the empty tropical blue sky
beneath the canopy of hungry leaves
beneath the cloak of feathers brightly dyed
there beats a heart of peerless peace and ease
within a breast of red a coat might envy
below a head of strangely fuzzy green
above a tail that causes quite a frenzy
whene’er a milliner comes on the scene.
Yet high upon his branch the quetzal calm
surveys with dignity and steady gaze
gripping with uniquely trogon palm
well-hidden in the forest-foam of baize.
Such beauty isn’t made for human sight
but for his dowdy love in jungle night.
Took me a while to find the right state of mind for this one. Lovely image! And what a strange looking bird! Quetzals are part of the order of Trognonformes, which are the only animals with a heterodactyl toe arrangement (the “uniquely trogon palm”) which has toes 3 and 4 pointed forward and 1 and 2 pointed back. Zygodactylic species, with toes 1 and 4 pointed back and toes 2 and 3 pointed forward, are much more common.
Thanks Tom! I am glad that eventually you were able to get into the right frame of mind for poetry.
I don’t remember seeing a photo that shows the toes… Hence they are hidden in the painting!