Every once in a while, one of the paintings on Duane Keiser’s A Painting a Day blog makes me gasp. This was one such painting, and it was not yet marked SOLD. When I showed the painting to Paul, he thought at first glance that it was a real blue jay feather glued onto a dark board. The cats, on the other hand, could tell right off that this was no feather. It smells of oil paints, not of bird!
For me, this painting evokes memories of feathers found on the driveway or in the yard of my childhood home. Blue jay feathers, striped black and blue and tipped in white, were my favorites. Whether perfect or damaged, they were beautiful. Don’t pick that up, my mother would say, it’s dirty. Did that stop me? Of course not.
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Thanks for the exposure to a delightful blog well worth checking out especially if you like realist virtuosity. How does he do it? Watch his iMovie. You’ll probably want to leave the job to him.
Nice choice! I loved that one and was bummed to see that it had been sold by the time I saw it. Enjoy it and don’t let the cats get to it!
Did I really say that? Love, your mother.
Yes, you really did. Love, your other daughter.
Wow…I gotta go check out that site. That’s an amazing painting.
Did you get the painting?
And now I am the mother who says that to her son–even as part of me is thinking stop it, let him pick it up, it’s what being a kid is all about. He usually does anyway, no matter what I say.
The very first time I experienced death was when we were at the Arboretum in Boston–I was probably almost three and it was an evening after Dad had come home from work. While my parents chatted, I ran around the trees, and came upon a dead blue jay. Never having seen a bird up close and immobile, I was impressed–or the image was impressed especially after my parents told me that it was dead. Now that you’ve triggered the memory, I just may develop this into something! Thanks.