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When I returned from Borneo a number of years ago, I couldn’t wait to do this painting of a Crested Jay (Platylophus galericulatus) a species found throughout the Malaysian Peninsula, and on Borneo. More northern birds, and especially those on Java, are blacker than the brownish race, P. g. coronatus, found on Borneo and in Sumatra, that I painted. Unlike other jays it has no tufts of feathers over the nostrils, and some experts have suggested putting it in its own family, Platylophidae, or else including it with the helmetshrikes, Vangidae, a small family of songbirds otherwise restricted to the African region. Whatever its evolutionary affinities, I think this is one of my best paintings which may be why I kept it in my basement gallery for so long, but I’m old enough that it’s time to put even my favourite paintings out in the marketplace. The original is approximately life size, and in acrylics on compressed hardboard and is 16 by 24 inches.

Renowned Canadian bird artist, writer, naturalist, and conservationist, Barry Kent MacKay has “always been an admirer of birds, anxious to see them, paint them, and care for them.” Barry’s biological and ecological accuracy has put him in demand for commissions, to illustrate books, scientific journals and various print and digital media. He has painted birds and other wildlife from around the world, often life size, working in oils, watercolours, and acrylics. He prefers to sell original art, and keeps prices low. “Actual, original art should be affordable for middle class buyers,” he says. “I avoid having to depend on selling reproductions so that the market does not dictate what I paint, which can often be little-known...