HUMMINGBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA
with Landscape vignettes
Acrylic
30" x 48"
Detail 1 - Detail 2 - Detail 3 - Detail 4
$7000

This painting is the result of months of research about the hummingbirds of North America, areas they frequent and the native plants that attract them.
The shape of the overall canvas can be viewed omparatively as the shape of the United States, with the left edge being the California coast and the right being the Eastern Seaboard.
Various areas of our country are depicted by landscape vignettes with a blue line representing the Mississippi River.
The birds are grouped in their respective areas with more hummingbirds in the southern areas of North America, than the north, as that is their preferred habitat.
The predominant species of hummingbirds in North America are represented with larger representations on the canvas:

Ruby Throat • Allen’s • Anna’s • Black-Chinned • Calliope • Broad-Tailed • Rufous • Coastas • Broad-billed

Birds are represented in various sizes (not in proportion to each other) in a colorful background of vines, stems and leaves stretching from one side to the other.
Some flowers overlap or fade to create a colorful background for the smaller representations of hummers accessing the flowers
and the overlapping creates a busy scene of action - much like the birds do themselves in real life as they zip from one place to the next.
The overall color of the background is white contrasting with the colorful birds and flowers.
The color pallet displays a lot of red and orange as that is the preferred color for the hummingbird flowers.
Many of the birds and flowers are represented as line drawings which contrast to the color areas.
The images are often overlapping and interlocking with other images, blending sounds the birds make with drawings of flight patterns.
I wanted to create the buzz the busy birds make.