I wanted to paint a teal in flight so as to maximise the flashes of – well, teal on the bird’s face and secondary wing feathers. I do occasionally find that looking for a resource photo can be problematic, especially with birds that are regular quarry, either for us humans or other species. I’m not in any way against hunting, and even less do I object to nature doing her thing, but I nonetheless find trawling through photos of teal ducks in various states from bloodied and feathered to pan-fried somewhat harrowing!
Thankfully, Instagram came to my rescue with a perfect photo from @jj.images of a male teal in flight. I use silver (or gold) paint in the iridescent sections which I invariably do first even though I then have to wash my brushes thoroughly so the whole bird doesn’t end up sparkly…
Here he is:
As with all my paintings, he is painted in gouache on heavyweight Somerset paper, and measures 30cm square. Yes: he is for sale – mounted and wrapped, he is ready to go in to any standard frame. £150 plus postage to anywhere in the world.
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