Cardinals on Rosehip Bush - Tote Bag Birds the ruts frozen

the ruts frozen

Glen's goldfinch paintings are among his most accessible and warmly regarded — the subject is familiar to anyone who has spent a summer afternoon in an Ontario field

the labellum orange-yellow at centre

the precise detail of the pine needles

gathered at the water's edge among the reeds

Cardinals on Rosehip Bush - Tote Bag Birds the ruts frozenA male and female Cardinal on a bare rosehip bush in late autumn the dried berries dark and clustered, the branches lifted against a softly graded winter sky. The male's red is muted slightly by the cool light, the female's warmth rhyming with the russet of the remaining hips. It is a composition built on exactly the kind of restraint that separates this watercolour from decorative bird art: nothing is brightened beyond what the actual light would