Orange Ice
11x14 oil on canvas
These orange poppies are growing underneath the bird bath in our backyard garden. I painted them larger than life... in reality these blooms are small... but when you have artistic license at your disposal size doesn't matter!
Our birdbath is a very popular spot this summer... a community pool of sorts for the local birds. We think the chickadees are living 'condo' style in a fir tree in our neighbor's yard, and perhaps the 'pool' and 'buffet' (our bird feeder) next door was the selling feature.
The living room sofa is ring side seating for watching the fun through our garden door! Sometimes there are one or two robins splashing around with a small chickadee joining in the fun. Other times there is a line up on the apple tree above, as each bird takes a turn. Often, we have to go out and refill the bath in the middle of the chaos so that the next birds have some water to splash around in as the previous ones have made quite a mess sloshing about! It's fun to watch them fly up into the apple tree afterwards, to dry off and preen themselves. Most of them rub their wet beaks on the branches, either to dry them off, or sharpen them, or both!
One day this spring I even found a bluejay having a bath in a large pail of water we had set out to catch water from a down spout! He needed the deeper pool in order to submerge his whole body, and didn't seem to mind as I walked by.
Who needs video games when nature can be so entertaining.?
SOLD
11x14, oil on canvas