My Water Birds-

This week I created a piece that is a little different for me. We love to vacation in the gulf coast, in fact I was in Pensacola FL this past March. I was lucky to get there before the oil spill. One of my favorite "site seeing" activities is capturing images of the birds, especially the water birds. I'm not sure of the names, so to avoid calling a bird by the wrong title (and avoid proper research) I will just say water bird. This is a painting I have had in the back of my brain for a bit. You know how you get an idea and it just sits and waits to move to the front of the art line? Yesterday the birds moved to the front of the line. I found this ETSY shop called Help the Gulf Coast . This shop is filled with donated items from ETSY sellers. It is a collective ETSY shop to help the gulf coast recover from the massive BP oil spill. 100% of the proceeds go to charity. With that in mind, the birds were created. I have donated 5x7 prints of this piece to help the effort. I filled out the donation form and the prints should be available for purchase in the next day or two. Add the shop to your ETSY favorites, or visit my facebook for updates on new listings.

The original was created on a 12x16 birch wood panel. I started in acrylic and pieced the birds and sun in various print papers. Charcoal, and watercolor finish the piece. I left the sides, which are 1 5/8 inches wide in it's natural wood state. The simple silhouettes of the birds against a setting sun gives this piece a quiet calm and reminds me of our summers spent on the beach in the gulf coast.

Visit my favorites to right, you can check out what other ETSY sellers are doing to help the gulf coast. Make your purchase count--help others :)