Northern Shoveler Female
by Barry Kent MacKay
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Price
$500
Dimensions
20.000 x 16.000 x 0.250 inches
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Title
Northern Shoveler Female
Artist
Barry Kent MacKay
Medium
Painting - Oil On Compressed Hardboard
Description
This painting shows a female Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata), in the process of raising one foot to stand in the typical one-legged resting pose. As is usual in birds that show “sexual dimorphism”, meaning distinct differences between male and female, the male is more colourful than the female. But that fact risks detracting us from the more subtle and intricate patterning and colour blending to be found in the plumage of the female. In this painting I focused entirely on the hen bird, so beautiful in her own right. I will do a more “traditional” treatment showing the pair, some other time. This species of shoveler nests over a vast range in the northern and temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere, although some spend the winter as far south as subtropical and even tropical regions. There are related species in the southern hemisphere, which is why we call it the “northern” shoveler, but in the U.K. it is just called the shoveler. They are obviously named for their spatulate beaks, which imparts in them a rather droll expression I find to be utterly charming. Their wing pattern is similar to that of the Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors), Cinnamon Teal (S. cyanoptera), Garganey (S. querquedula) and other related species, all once put in the genus, Anas. The males often show traces of a white crescent in front of the eye, a feature, more boldly pronounced, of the Blue-winged Teal and other shoveler species. These shared “visual themes” in various bird species fascinate me, and presumably, if not always necessarily, reflect common ancestral affiliations. Oils on compressed hardboard, 16 X 20 inches. $500.00.
Uploaded
March 12th, 2021
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