Decorah Eagle Mom

While I am working lately I have had the Decorah Eagle Cam ([link]) up, instead of music. This year the video quality is just superb and allows me to get to know these great birds better and observe them in great detail. Not to mention that the person manning the PTZ camera is just great!

I have been doing a lot of little 'life' sketches of the eagles and their poses and expressions in the margins of my work and while paint dries, that sort of thing.
This painting started like that, but I was really taken with the morning light several days ago and the lovely blue shadows it was casting. Using a few of my sketches, a few screenshots, and lots of lovely life observation I have worked on this in-between other projects.

Then Corel Painter (the art program I use to paint digitally) crashed not once... but twice. The second time that I lost several hours of work (I do save frequently but it was corrupting files...) I gave up, and here it is, somewhat unfinished.

This is the female eagle as she sits on the nest (at the time, two chicks and one egg).

I am toying with the idea of making prints ) if I can afford it, and then donating half of any proceeds to the Raptor Resource Project (the people that run the cam.

Painted in Corel Painter, mostly Oil Pastels and RealBristle brushes. (using traditional methods)