Hummingbird Heaven

Title

Hummingbird Heaven

Artist

Frank Strasser

Medium

Painting - Acrylic On Canvas

Description

From an early age, I observed birds with wide-eyed wonder. Hummingbirds have long been a personal favorite. Recently, hummingbirds have begun to fly into my Venice Beach, California art studio to visit my houseplants and me. This painting was literally inspired by one such hummingbird.

One typically sunny afternoon I sat at my easel staring blankly at a blank canvas with no idea what to paint. I began to become aware of a strange light tapping sound coming from the other room. I went in several times expecting to catch a friend at my window dropping by the studio to play tricks on me... or see something. But there was nothing to see at the window, or on my canvas.

Finally, I caught a glimpse of something and realized it was a hummingbird, which had evidently flown inside and was tapping frantically against the window trying to get out again. It was exhausted and collapsed on a kitchen shelf. After some thought, I gently picked up the tiny trembling creature and cradled it in my hands. After a while, it seemed alert so I took it outside and opened my hands and off it shot like a UFO into the wild blue yonder.

Naturally, I went back inside my studio and began to paint a ruby-throated hummingbird with some of the hibiscus and fuchsias which were blooming on my patio at the time. Modern photographic technologies now make capturing the incredibly rapid wing movements of these amazing little creatures in flight possible.

Uploaded

October 19th, 2011

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