8′ x 5′
Oil on wood
One of my favourite paintings to this day!
I painted on a yellow gesso to give the bird a warm contrast. As with most of my paintings I glazed it after that with multiple layers of oil paint. The result is a vibrant and three-dimensional robin chirping at you to finally get off the screen!
The Robin
Except within poetic pale
I have not found a nightingale,
Nor hearkened in a dusky vale
To song and silence blending;
No stock-dove have I ever heard,
Nor listened to a cuckoo-bird,
Nor seen a lark ascending.
But I have felt a pulse-beat start
Because a robin, spending
The utmost of his simple art
Some of his pleasure to impart
While twilight came descending,
Has found an answer in my heart,
A sudden comprehending.
– Witter Bynner