Levitation

by AnnaJo Vahle

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Price

Not Specified

Dimensions

24.000 x 22.000 x 0.500 inches

Title

Levitation

Artist

AnnaJo Vahle

Medium

Painting - Acrylic On Canvas

Description

A wonderful bird is the pelican

His bill will hold more than his belican

He can take in his beak

Food enough for a week

But I'm damned if I see how the helican.

I was recently having brunch with some friends at Port Canaveral. Cruise liners floated by in a stately parade. Seagulls and cormorants flew around hunting for fish and other tasty tidbits. I was especially enamored of the silly-looking brown pelicans.

This one soured high into the air and seemed to hover. It levitated for a second before it tipped over head first and plunged to the water. It was at this split second...as it seemed to levitate, that I painted it. Of course, I can't paint that fast! Fortunately, I had my trusty camera with me.

I painted this with acrylic on stretched canvas. I painted the sky en plein air from my backyard. I live just eight miles from the port. I used the help of my photographs to paint the bird.

Although they are a strange looking bird, they are absolutely graceful in the sky. Watching them, is always soothes my soul. I wonder what it is like to soar freely through the heavens like they do.

The Brown Pelican is a comically elegant bird with an oversized bill, sinuous neck, and big, dark body. Squadrons glide above the surf along southern and western coasts, rising and falling in a graceful echo of the waves. They feed by plunge-diving from high up, using the force of impact to stun small fish before scooping them up. They are fairly common today—an excellent example of a species’ recovery from pesticide pollution that once placed them at the brink of extinction.

Brown Pelicans are huge, stocky seabirds. They have thin necks and very long bills with a stretchy throat pouch used for capturing fish. Their wings are very long and broad and are often noticeably bowed when the birds are gliding.

Adult Brown Pelicans are gray-brown birds with yellow heads and white necks. In breeding plumage, the back and sides of the neck turn a rich, dark reddish-brown. Immatures are gray-brown above (including the head and neck) with pale whitish belly and breast.

Brown Pelicans feed by plunging into the water, stunning small fish with the impact of their large bodies and scooping them up in their expandable throat pouches. When not foraging, pelicans stand around fishing docks, jetties, and beaches or cruise the shoreline. In flight, lines of pelicans glide on their broad wings, often surfing updrafts along wave faces or cliffs. Their wingbeats are slow, deep, and powerful.

Uploaded

August 16th, 2014

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