During a trip to Barbados, I became fascinated with the attitude and body language of grackles. These intelligent members of the blackbird family caught my eye while I was sitting at the bar, watching World Cup Soccer, and enjoying Mount Gay Rum.While the grackles were enjoying whatever food fell to the ground or was left unattended, I was drawn by their feistiness and the contrast between their iridescent blue feathers and striking golden eyes.
The birds were the inspiration for two paintings, “Three Little Birds” and “The Grackle,” but their influence on my art goes beyond these works. I needed a background color that would set off the blue/violet of their feathers; while yellow is purple’s complementary color, I needed a yellow that wouldn’t detract from the birds’ bright yellow eyes. I turned to Naples Yellow, a color that was originally derived from the soil of Mt. Vesuvius or Naples, Italy. Naples yellow has become a regular support color in my paintings since these early experiments.
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Rum, music, and very cool birds with yellow eyes brought about some great memories and paintings that I really enjoy and hope you will, too.