Fulvous Whistling Duck and other feathered friends

Well, hi blog. It’s been awhile. Design work has squeezed out painting and illustrating in the late spring months. Alas. I have been working on some small oil landscapes and hope to have one ready soon to post. But in the meantime, I thought perhaps posting another piece of art by one of my progeny might be nice.

Suitable that it be Oliver’s.... Oliver is away at camp this week, and we are missing him! Missing him in lots of ways, but as I sit here in my office, normally I can cast a glance over my left shoulder and see Oliver engaged in some of creative project at his desk which sits in the opposite corner from mine. But he’s not there now, and so in missing him I mosied over and saw many of his fairly recent bird drawings as part of his bird field guide project.

One of Oliver’s key attributes is dedication. When he begins something, he usually stays with it for a long time, and usually completes it. As may have been mentioned in other areas of my blog, Oliver has been working on the field guide since KINDERGARTEN. He is now a rising 8th grader. Not working on it every day mind you, but he picks it up here and there, when the time is right and other pulls on his little life have died down somewhat.

Now there are plenty of things Oliver can’t draw well. People, for instance, and it’s one of our summer goals to work on that together. But the kid can draw birds! He has been fascinated with them for so long and drawn them for so many years that he just instinctually knows how to draw every curve and turn of the line. It’s really something. And the patience to do all those feathers! It just kills me every time because it’s everything I’m not when it comes to creative endeavors—steadfast, faithful, willing to drill down and focus focus focus.

We were recently at Green Springs Farm Park here in Fairfax County just to do SOMETHING other than school (just out) and swim team (just started, fever pitch). While there we saw for the first time ever a beautiful brilliant orange Baltimore Oriole, a lovely soaring Great Blue Heron, and then some kind of hawk. I would have been content to say “Oh there’s a hawk”. But Oliver stopped, studied for a bit, and quickly pronounced it a broad winged hawk. “How do you know that?” said I, looking again at the bird a good bit above us in the trees. He quickly discussed it’s relative size to other hawks, the specific banding of brown across the front of the bird, and the broader wings.

So in honor of Oliver, I share his drawing of the “Fulvous Whistling Duck”, latin name Dendrocygna bicolor.