Large Wolf Painting Wildlife Art

Below are some photos of a pastel painting I sold earlier this year.
There's nothing quite like the feeling of seeing your own work proudly hanging in a client's home! Feeling elated!

Blue Peacock Miniature Painting in pastel...SOLD!

This is the first in a series of three peacock-themed paintings. Since I have the three matching frames, the paintings will have a similar color scheme.

I'm not sure why blogger drastically changes uploaded images, looks like they are color enhanced as this is nowhere near as vivid as my painting looks like in real life... I have a better representation on my website at www.colettetheriault.com

 untitled

4"x3"

pastel

available for purchase

New bird painting in pastel on my easel

I've been working on my newest miniature painting which will be part of a triptych. I am mostly using very sharp pastel pencils for this piece as it only measures 4"x3". It is much more difficult to render fine detail in such a tight space but I do love the challenge of creating these little pieces!

Red-Breasted Nuthatch bird paintings (diptych) using pastels...SOLD!

I purposefully positioned the male and female on this diptych to face each other while the shape and angle of their bodies and the tree trunks continually lead the eyes to each painting, harmoniously joining the two together (at least that is what I hope to have accomplished).

Nuthatches are acrobatic little birds, often seen going headfirst down a tree trunk or branch looking for food. Breeding pairs are monogamous which means they mate for life.

As you will see from the reference images below, this time, I really broke free from being a slave to a photograph (or two)!  Since I wanted to paint a diptych of a pair of red-breasted nuthaches in breeding plumage, I sifted through my own reference photos and found a suitable one I had taken of a juvenile red-breasted nuthatch (photo on the bottom right).

I had a composition in mind but none of the photos I had taken were suitable for the second painting... my problem was that I did not have any nice downward-facing poses of a  nuthatch.

Then, one day, almost by accident, I found the perfect pose while reading my blog roll! My dear blogger friend, Carol Blackburn, graciously agreed for me to use hers as a guide for my painting (even though the bird she photographed on the left below, was a white-breasted nuthatch)! 

So, as you can see, the female bird has undergone quite a transformation and even changed specie! As for the male bird, he has transformed as well, just not as dramatically...he is all grown up on my painting...the little guy on my photo was not quite mature yet and had not developed his full coloration!

Progress on nuthatch bird painting

The pair of red-breasted nuthatches (diptych painting) is progressing well today.  
I have begun to differentiate the two birds at this stage, and you can now see that the male has a deeper rust on his chest when compared to the female on the left.  Another distinct difference is that the male sports a black crown while the female's is dark grey (although the angle of the male's head makes it a little difficult to discern).