Hummingbird

I began a painting of a hummingbird. As always, i sketched the scene many times. I focused less on accuracy of the forms, and tried to "infuse" the sketches with feelings of childlike wonder, curiosity, adventure, and such things. I suppose a theme of this piece will be that small things can make a big impact. 

Some of the sketches were done with items found in nature.  I used cedar branches, natural sponges, and I even crafted a paint brush out of pine needles. 

I developed one sketch into a decent little practice painting. It taught me a lot about how i need to proceed. 

Then, i started painting. I began with an underpaintingthat i intended to be just simply two different shades of blue. I was having too much fun to keep it simple, so I turned it into a pretty little example of ĺyrical abstraction. An interesting foundation that i hope will "peek through" the forms, lines, and shapes that I paint over top. 

I plan to put much more detail into this piece than I typically do. Careful and deliberate details will be important to making this painting successful for me. I will need to be intentionally patient, and slower than usual. It will be a challenge.

I finished a fairly expressive layer over the underpainting. I paid attention to detail, but tried to just "suggest" details with this layer. I will define them more clearly with the next, and hopefully final layer. I am happy with the energy in the scene. With the next layer, I plan to remove just a little of the expressive quality in the painting now, for the sake of detail. This layer may take a long time. 

I finished a third layer to the piece. I filled the foreground with rich detail. I am not satisfied with the background, though. I had intended to blur the background, but took it to far. I will add another layer to the background only, trying to change just blurry colors into blurry foliage and petals.

I painted another layer over the background only, painting in some leaves and flower petals, but keeping them blurry so that the background won't distract from the foreground. 

I think this little hummingbird shows much of the curiosity and intense focus that matches the effort i put into the piece. I am happy to sign this painting. The title is "Captivated, Not Captive."