I think I neglected to mention yseterday that when the Cooper's Hawk took his prey it was snowing very hard. And it was windy, almost blizzard-like. I thought I'd like to get that into the drawing or painting but realized that would have to be the last touch. Given all the trouble I had getting the hawk right I couldn't be thinking about embellishments like snow. Like the parsley garnish without the main entree.
In any case this morning I continued work on the pastel and I'm satisified with the hawk. Once I got to that point I decided to do something to try to indicate the blizzard-like conditions. I'm normally unconvinced by attempts to indicate snow or rain but I couldn't resist giving it a try!
I'm happy with it. It reminds me of a quote I ran across by the artist Raymond Ching in the book 'Wildlife Painting' by Susan Rayfield: '"What I want to do is paint a picture that will make you feel the way I felt.". This does that and I can't expect too much more than that. I should add that tomorrow is the second anniversary of this blog. I'm not sure whether I'll post or not but if not I think this drawing and quote are an apt second-anniversary post. The drawing portrays what I felt and this post talks about that as the main goal of art. Apt enough!
