A painting of 75 Flamingos, for my Father’s 75th Birthday. He loves these birds! Years ago my brother had taken a photo of a pond full of flamingos, and had it printed and framed at 16″ x 20″ for him. With time, the photo unfortunately rippled with condensation, so I made this painting as a way of “repairing” the scene inside the frame. When I decided on this surreal scene with flamingos of varying sizes I knew that it would need a focal point, so I placed a single larger flamingo just off-center and added the most detail to that one, giving a bigger water ripple to draw in the eye of the viewer. The amount of detail dwindles towards the edges of the scene, again to draw the eye back in. The miniature canoe is being paddled by my Father and I. We used to canoe down the Kinderhook Creek in a green canoe when I was a kid, and the naming of the canoe is a reference to his time spent on Navy ships when serving in the Marine Core. The scale here is purposefully juxtaposed to create a feeling of awe and wonder, as if one really could canoe through a forest of peaceful pink birds.
Mixed Media: pencil, watercolor, and colored pencil.
16″ x 20″ Bristol Board.
75 Flamingos
