New Daily Oil Painting "Yellow Feet"

Yellow Feet
Mark Nesmith
Oil on Oil Primed Linen Panel
7" x 5"
2014

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People often associate the beach with sunshine and surf, but it's also a fantastic place to get a little closer with nature.  The Bolivar Peninsula is home to many bird sanctuaries including my often cited favorite beach, Bolivar Flats, but just about any stretch of the coast along the Gulf of Mexico can be a great place for watching our winged friends.

From the mundane seagull to spoonbills, pelicans, and egrets, there are thousands upon thousands of birds that make an annual stop off along the Texas coast. 

Here a white egret enjoys wading in one of the many tidal pools that crop up every day with the tide.  The curvaceous neck gives most egrets a graceful appearance akin to swans, but it was the vibrant yellow highlights along this bird's feet and eyes that caught my attention.  On an otherwise overcast day, those flashes of yellow just seemed to pop out of nowhere.

It can be a challenge to keep interest in the white areas of a painting.  Here I alternating tints of light blue on the left side of the bird with warmer, yellow and greenish tints on the right.  Placing the bird against the muted earth tones of the background created a strong contrast that really helped the whites pop.