Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel 6" x 6"I've been painting a lot of fur lately so I thought I'd have a go at some feathers for a change. My friend Deb gave me a very faded photo of her long departed yellow nape Amazon parrot Vezzie a while back to see what I could do with it. It was one of those old Polaroid photos which had faded and color shifted. After some internet research, I think (at least I hope) I came close to her original coloration. I really liked the contrast of the greens and the reds. Why Vezzie you ask? According to Deb - "She was named after a heroine in a Victorian novel by Trollope. That character had broken her hip and walked with a limp. She was so vain that she refused to walk in public after that and was carried everywhere in a sedan chair, Of course, pet parrots don't walk or fly - they're carried everywhere. And, pet parrots can be incredibly vain - my beautiful Vezzie certainly was. So, that's where her name came from. She was also wicked smart. She could break out of her cage, in-spite of the fact that it takes several actions taken at the same time to get the cage open. She was a really good talker and could imitate me perfectly. She was my special bud."
6 comments:
You have captured my beautiful girl perfectly (as always). Thank you so much for creating this wonderful momento of my baby girl.
Love, Deb
My pleasure, Deb. I'm pleased that you like it.
she looks live is is doing the escape jig... She really is quite pretty.. Great details as always
love from London
Thanks, Diane. We miss you. Our voracious friends (including your husband) ate ALL the corned beef or I would have frozen some for you. Oh well, there is always next year. Sláinte!
Vezzie looks like such a ham!
I love the intense colors in this one, Mark!
-Dean
Arrrrrh, a ham she be,
I was a little worried about the extreme color contrast in this piece but I think it works - even more so in the studio. The bird literally flies off the canvas, so to speak.
Thanks, Dean.
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