Flamingos, Flamingos, Flamingos

 I have to say, you either love Flamingos or you don't.  You love them, I just know you do also. And why not? I mean what's not to love? They are unusual yet beautiful.  Graceful in their gait and oh that color, fantastic.  

I have painted and sold dozens of Flamingo paintings through the years.  This piece is titled, 'Perfect Balance'.  The title refers not only to how a Flamingo can stand tall on one leg but how balanced the overall composition of the work is.  I think it's perfect in everyway.  

With the Flamingos I got tons of research and sketches from two places.  The first one is literally right down the road from me.  It's one of St. Petersburg's attractions called Sunken Gardens.   A beautiful walk through flowering plants of all kinds and many exotic birds.  They have a couple of dozen Flamingos that are very approachable.  You can get within a few feet of them.  Great for sketching.

The other place where I have gotten some unbelievable good research is the Riverbanks Zoon and Garden in Columbia, South Carolina.  Fantastic zoo.  They typically have a few dozen Flamingos situated in the perfect arrangement to sketch and get reference material.  Riverbanks Zoo a great zoo.  Really great for the kids too.  Lots and lots of stuff to do.  When you go plan on at least one full day to see it all.

Once I got enough research material, I grab my sketch book and start to play with compositions.  

After I had played around with the three different poses I knew I wanted a close up background.  Those split-leaf philodendrons are a real challenge to paint, especially the way I painted them with the overlapping leaves but I really think it was the perfect choice.