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The American Goldfinch molts in the spring so that it has an especially vibrant set of feathers in time for breeding season. These active, noisy little finches are common visitors to feeders in the Raleigh area. They’ve always been a favorite of mine because of their bright yellow coloring. I painted this 5×7” watercolor from…
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Not Peking duck, though these birds are often raised for meat, this is the American or White Pekin. A domestic duck derived from birds brought to the US from China in the late 1800s/early 1900s, where mallards had been domesticated and bred over hundreds, if not thousands, of years. At one time my mother kept…
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The North American River Otter is a semi aquatic mammal that can be found along the waterways of North Carolina as well as many other states and Canada. River otters prefer to eat fish but will eat frogs, salamanders, and even small turtles. They look kinda cute, which is why I painted one, from a…
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The redstart is a warbler that can be seen around here and to the west. It would be seen in the woods where it often catches insects mid-air. I’ve never seen one but I’ll keep trying. Meanwhile, I’ve painted this watercolor from a reference photograph I found online. Original is approximately 5.5×8.5”
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I hadn’t painted anything in a few weeks and then a coworker suggested she’d like to see a robin. So I found a suitable reference photo online and went to work. A couple of day later I had this 5.5” square watercolor on paper. The American Robin is very common around here and this is…
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My first bird painting of 2024 is this swallow. Several of these birds frequent the parking lot behind Raleigh’s best coffee shop, Cup A Joe. A pair of them always makes their nest in a certain drainage pipe behind the building. In spring and summer you can watch them coming and going, bringing food back…
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My last bird painting of 2023 was this common loon. When I lived on my parents’ property in Wendell, NC, I would often hear common loons calling from the big pond in the distance. I hiked down to the pond many times to see them. My original painting is on 5.5×8.5 Strathmore paper. Prints are…
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My newest painting is this male oriole. I used two different reference photos to put together this pose and composition. I recently sold a print to someone who said, “let me know when you’ve done an oriole,” so now I have. I’ve never seen an oriole at any of my feeders, but I’ve read posts…
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I have just finished a new watercolor painting. This time it is the house finch, probably the most common bird in my area. Of all the birds I’ve seen in the Raleigh area, the little house finch is by far the one I have seen the most – at my own feeders and everywhere else.…
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I have created a second “Joe Bird,” this time it is a northern cardinal – the State Bird of NC. The first “Joe Birds” piece is a watercolor of two eastern bluebirds over a cup of coffee, which I scanned and then added the Cup A Joe coffee shop logo digitally. I did the same…
Craig Laurer 