Barry Kent MacKayArt by Barry Kent MacKay
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In this section are copies of original works of art. All of them are dedicated to helping us live according to unconditional love and compassion, which is the foundation of our peaceful means of bringing true and lasting peace to all of God's creatures, whether they are human beings or other animals.

Wilson's Phalarope (Steganopus [Phalaropus] tricolor)


Barry Kent MacKay bird art
(Artwork - 099)
Wilson's Phalarope
(Steganopus [Phalaropus] tricolor)

There are three species of phalarope, noted for the fact that the females are more colourful than the males, and the males are the ones who incubate the eggs and tend to the young; a sort of sexual role-reversal.

This species is the only one of the three that only breeds in North America, mainly in the prairies, but I had my best looks at them when I found them nesting in central California, at the very south-west corner of their normal breeding range. They normally winter in South America. Vagrant birds show up in Europe.

This painting was done as a cover for a birding magazine, so I kept it simple, with room for type. The female is in the foreground, the male in the background.

The painting is in acrylics, with a bit of colour pencil, on compressed hardboard. I love painting shorebirds because of their sleek, tapered proportions and firm, dense plumage, and choice of interesting habitats to portray, although this image is very simple and more “illustrative” than usual for me, I think, and shown in a “field guide” pose that gives the viewer a good sense of the bird’s colour and pattern.

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Copyright © Barry Kent MacKay
Barry describes himself as a Canadian artist/writer/naturalist.
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