More Morecambe, More Birds..

Herring Gull 

I watched the seagull
strut across the beach,
gunslinger walk,
John Wayne personified.

Sized up the swan,
decided first
to make his point,

and then discretion
in the face
of superior aggression;

backed off

and walked away
but the strut remained.

Did you see that,
how I showed him  
I could almost hear him say.

by David Agnew

http://belfastdavid.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/herring-gull/

Larus Argentatus

Juvenile Herring Gull

This is a painting of a young herring gull. It is probably in it’s second year. It’s from a photograph taken on our recent trip to Morecambe. The painting is in oil on an old salvaged canvas, and sees a return to painting birds. I thought I was finished painting birds, but apparently not; I’ve just finished a painting of a rook in flight, but more of that later.

As I usually do, I’ve put the painting on in stages, as it progressed, Unlike most of my other paintings, I didn’t start this one by blocking in the masses – more the background, leaving the bird itself ‘empty’.

Anyway, here it is..

Herring Gull.