Monday, February 28, 2011

The pendulum slowly swings...

"Ellen (outdoor gestural study)" by Hilary J England, 8" x 10" oil on canvas



I was out and about yesterday, enjoying the first hints of Spring, when, lo and behold, I could not believe my eyes, but there on the side of the road, in all of his beauty, was a large male pileated woodpecker!  I was so stunned at his brazen location on the side of the rural road, I stopped the car, threw it into reverse, and crept backwards to see if he was real, and not some decoration someone put on their property.  Indeed, he was no phantom, and I scrambled excitedly to get my camera, opened the sunroof, stuck my body carefully through the window and...HE WAS GONE.  Ugh.  I guess I'd make a lousy reporter.

At any rate, I am still happy to have seen him, since I know they are around, but in all my local travels, I've never seen one...just like I've never seen a bald eagle yet.  So, this definitely made my day.

On an annoying note, somewhere through all the contortions yesterday, I pulled a muscle in my shoulder blade, and I feel as stiff as a mummy today, which is driving me nuts since I have lots of stuff to get done, and not being able to move very well is not helpful to anything.  I took another bit of ibuprofen, and hope that will do the trick.

Tomorrow I drop off my work in NYC for Red Dot this week.  Thursday is the kickoff, with an opening reception from 6-9 pm, a cocktail party at the Strand Hotel on Friday night, and then the close of the exhibition on Sunday evening at 6 pm.  It should be an interesting and fun weekend.

I left you with another small plein air nude, done with another local model.  I keep focusing on warm, warm, warm!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Crow in the Mist New oil painting

“Crow in the mist” by Hilary J. England, 12” x 16” oil on canvas  I was out walking along in the cold damp fog the day before the big snow, ...