Bullock's Oriole:

Jan loves all of nature, from a rampaging rhino to a tiny wren. That's what keeps her work exciting for her - exploring all the wonderful aspects of nature. She doesn't have trouble getting up and going to work every morning - the hard part is deciding WHAT to paint - as she has so many ideas! In this painting she is doing a Bullock's Oriole, which is a subspecies of the Northern Oriole that is found in the west.

Jan believes in doing all her own research with the help and support of her husband and partner James. They travel extensively around North America, Africa and the rainforests of South and Central America where they both photograph. Jan does not believe in working from a third party's photos - she believes it is necessary for an artist to experience nature so that she is better able to depict it realistically at the end of her paint brush.

James photographed a Bullock's Oriole during a research trip they took in the desert southwest. This bird was photographed at the Desert Museum in Tucson, Az. Bird photography can be extremely tricky because they are small and shy, but James was able to get several photos with his digital camera for Jan to work from.

Jan usually does a shallow depth of field "out of focus" type background with bird paintings. Too much detail would distract from the subject. Here a woodland type scene is done as the background and the bird with the branch he is sitting in are blocked in with a dark brown.

Here Jan has done a "to scale" drawing on a piece of tracing paper and will be transferring it to the painting surface.

In this image Jan has finished the branch and transferred the drawing of the bird to the painting surface.

This is the finished painting. It is 9x12 and is called "Golden Summer".