Birds have been on my mind lately. It started when the J. Willott Gallery invited me to sculpt a live raptor (not a dinosaur, a bird of prey) in their gallery.  The gallery is working with The Living Desert Zoo to raise money for their animals and sell artwork. As the whole event has coalesced it has been determined that I’ll be sculpting a red-tailed hawk on Feb the 18^th.  You can only draw or sculpt what you know so I’ve spent a lot of time studying birds, their anatomy and their feather structure. I’ve literally studied everything I could get my hands on including actual specimens.

A parrot and raptor couldn’t be more different, one is predator the other is prey. But since I don’t have a bird of prey handy I found a parrot to be more accessible and less intimating to warm up on. The trick with birds are their feathers and how best to make them. It’s easy to tuck the feathers in, they fold up like a stream lined accordion, but that’s not exciting. I want a more dynamic pose showing of the bird’s wings and talons. A fellow sculptor who has sculpted many birds, advised me to first cut the feathers out of cardboard, cover them in wax and then attach them to the armature. I’m more of a gesturalist, I’m not too concerned with fine details but in this situation there really is no way to cheat feathers . You need to make them, at least the primaries, secondaries, alulae, primary and secondary coverts. Yeah it’s a lot of cutting.

I used a cheerios box for the wings.

For the practice sculpture I sculpted a parrot live and chose one of my favorite poses; the wing and leg stretch. It’s always looked like some kind of avian yoga position.  Going through the entire process helps me plan in advance what I’ll need to prepare and how I’ll sculpt a life size Red Tailed Hawk. More to come as I prepare to sculpt a Red Tail Hawk.

I shot this footage with my dinky phone camera.

Can anyone tell me definitively what kind of raptor this is?

Just minutes away from where I grew up buffalo roam on an island surrounded by the Great Salt Lake. While my family  and I were visiting for the holidays I snuck out in the early morning to go to Antelope Island. As its name suggests, Antelope Island is home to several herds of antelope or pronghorn. Antelope Island is the largest and most developed of the Great Salt Lake islands. I reached it crossing the causeway just before dawn. Even in the dim morning light I was abl

e to see large boulder-like silhouettes’ of American buffalo (I know they’re technically not related to African buffalo but to Eurasian

Bison- but a moose is technically an Elk by the same logic so I prefer American Buffalo.)
The American Buffalo once numbered in the tens of millions. Their epic migrations dwarfed the wildebeest migration of east Africa. History wasn’t kind to America’s largest animal. By the end of the nineteenth century there was only a handful left in scattered herds. Fortunately those that remained became protected under federal law. One of the remaining herds was the antelope island population. Genetically they are recognized as one of the oldest herds.

As the sun rose over the snow covered mountains I could clearly see the buffalo. Steam rose off their dark brown hides. Nearby the buffalo was a covey of quail meandering among the sage brush. Two magpies with their elegant black and white coloring with flashes of iridescent blue flew in and among the buffalo.
The American buffalo is a great model for the artist; so many different textures and forms. Using a large sumi brush I made several paintings of the icon of the west. In all there are around nine hundred buffalo who call Antelope Island their home. Along with the Buffalo there are several herds of pronghorn, mule deer coyotes and birds. On my visit I saw chukar, quail, rough legged hawk, bald eagle, red winged black birds along with migratory waterfowl, mostly northern shovelers. The Great Salt Lake is a type of way station for migrating birds, and depending upon the season can harbor thousands of birds.
In the middle of the sea of salt buffalo live on small isolated island only miles from cities along the Wasatch front. It’s harrowing to think of the wasteful slaughter of millions of bison, but encouraging to know that the fortunate few remaining buffalo were preserved and protected for our generation.

I shot this footage with my new slr camera: