Lady Slipper Orchid

My most recent painting is of a Lady Slipper. The Lady Slipper is an Orchid found in most of North America as well as parts of Europe and Asia. Growing up in Minnesota, I knew it as the state flower. I think this might be why it has been one of my favorite wild flowers. 

5" x 5"  Mixed media,  SOLD

White-headed Woodpecker

Except for a small pocket in the mountains of southern California, this is a Northwest specialty woodpecker.  This is why he is the star of our central Oregon woodpecker festival.  The Dean Hale Woodpecker Festival is held every June and is put on by the Central Oregon Audubon Society. 

White Headed woodpeckers are quite stunning and unique in behavior and appearance.  They are fairly common in their mountain range and in my county, they are common nesters above 4,000 feet.  They are about the size of a Hairy Woodpecker with glossy black back and very distinctive white patch near the wingtips that display nicely in flight.  The males have a red patch toward the back of the head.

Image Size is 4" x 4"  mixed media on arches watercolor paper.  $75

For check payment or other payment arrangements email

birdartist@mindspring.com

Northern Pygmy Owl

I moved to Central Oregon in 2006 and have been birding extensively since I arrived but it took me till the spring of last year to finally locate this wonderful bird.  It became my nemesis.  It was with the help of a wonderful local birder, Dean Hale, that I was finally able to tick this bird.  Dean was tragically killed in a head on collision this past weekend.  I chose to finished this painting, that I started last year, as a tribute to a much loved human being.

Original mixed media painting, 8" x 8"   $150

For check payment or other payment arrangements email

birdartist@mindspring.com

American Three-toed Woodpecker

Continuing the Woodpecker series, the Three-toed Woodpecker is fairly similar to the Black-backed in the previous post but from behind can be confused with the Hairy which is similar in size and has a similar white pattern in the middle of the back.  Black-back and Three-toed  inhabit mostly the same habitat and ranges but Three-toed is slightly more widespread.  The Three-toed is  more petite over all and has a shorter bill.  As mentioned there is also some white streaking down the center of the back and facial patterns are different.  I have noticed in the field that the Black-back is more gregarious and has much louder drumming.  Often it is difficult to hear the Three-toed working a tree, they just quietly tap away.

Image Size is 4" x 4"  mixed media on arches watercolor paper.  $75 

For check payment or other payment arrangements email

birdartist@mindspring.com

Black-backed Woodpecker

Next in my woodpecker series is the Black-backed Woodpecker. Uncommon and localized inhabitant of northern Boreal and montane coniferous forests, comprising spruce, tamarack, red fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, and lodgepole pine. In Oregon, they are mostly found in the cascade range and the blue mountains and the Wallowas. The are very fond of burned over and beetle infested forests so the best place to find them are in burns that are up to five or six years old. 

Image Size is 4" x 4"  mixed media on arches watercolor paper.  $75 

For check payment or other payment arrangements email

birdartist@mindspring.com

 

Art of Donald Sutherland on display...

It is always fun to see a body of my work on display and I welcome opportunities to hang my paintings in public. I was asked to join several other artists in a show that is now hanging on the second floor of St Charles Medical Center.  They are hanging at the end of the back hall from the cafeteria which is immediately to the left as you get off the elevator. The show will be hanging till the  middle of April.   To my Bend friends, please feel free to go out of your way to see them hanging because I would not want you to be at St Charles for any other reason :=) (unless of course you work there)

Northern Flicker

The Flicker is a fairly ubiquitous woodpecker throughout North America.  They are yard birds throughout their range and can be found deep in the wild as well.  They have distinctive plumage differences between east and west, in the east the the shafts of their feathers are yellow and in the west the shafts are red. Ornithologists have pondered these differences over the years which lead at one point to splitting them into two separate species. Now, with DNA, the evidence suggests they are the same species so they are now called the Northern Flicker. Unlike most woodpeckers, you will see them sitting straight up on a branch as well as feeding on the ground.

Image Size is 4" x 4"  mixed media on arches watercolor paper.  $75

For check payment or other payment arrangements email

birdartist@mindspring.com