All of my art reflects my love of nature. My paintings hold the beauty of the natural world up to grab attention and remind us all of what we are loosing everyday. The underlying message is protect, conserve and save our world.

Today is World Ocean's Day and in lucky timing to honor it I have just finished this piece, "Water Baby" acrylic 36" x36"

I usually work in oils but decided to paint this water and turtle piece with acrylics. My reasoning was that I would be doing many layers to capture the fluidity of the water and reflections and the quick drying acrylics would save me days if not weeks of drying time between the layers. Also, I figured the transparency of acrylic paints would be a plus for the layering....

What I wanted to do in this oil on acrylic, or mixed media painting is capture the egret posed in the scintillating light of post-sunset. In those moments, before darkness descends, the air has a stillness and yet it gently vibrates with the second by second dimming light. The color of the light is unlike any other and has a magical feel to it. I am always transported to a different place in those few moments and then, before I know it, it is dark.

In this great egret painting I used many layers of transparent iridescent glazes for the background color to imitate the post-sunset, pre-night light. You cannot see this in the photograph of the painting, you have to see it in real life.

I saw this scene at Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, ...