The Beggar

     Last year, we took a trip for photos and references to the coast of Florida and the Keys. If you are not new to this blog, you may have seen this fellow before in one of my sepia paintings. Not in this pose of course but another. My husband is not real sure about this one, I guess because of the arresting stare down this bird possessed.

     This little fellow was quite the beggar and called Coya Costa home. Coya Costa is off the coast of Florida and you get to it from the Sandia Island area. It is a State park and is quite spectacular in it's beauty and pristine habitats for animals. You must go by boat to the island and stay the day. There are facilities there, but you must bring your own stuff to the beach area as it is far from the dock. I hope to stay there some day, there are primitive cabins and animals are allowed. I think it would be delightful to be cut off from the world for a few days, just to bask in the sun and admire the handiworks of our creator. Back to this little fellow.................

     We had been at the beach for some time with our fellow shell collectors and had settled down for a lunch that consisted of sandwiches and chips. There were several of these little birds wandering about, but this guy seemed to have overcome his fear of humans in order to get tasty morsels thrown from our sandwiches. Closer and closer he came, shooing off his flock mates, biting and running them in all directions. This little intimidator had done this before obviously! He came just close enough to get the tasty bits and run and fast as his little legs could carry him. The other birds would frantically run after him, hoping to get him to drop whatever he had managed to get. They would then squabble over what was dropped and somebody was always the victor. Eventually this guy realized that I wanted him closer and the others would have none of that game so they went off to better pickings. I slowly moved, and got the camera out, throwing bits of bread in his direction. At first, either the sound of the camera clicking or the movement of my finger on the shutter startled him. We finally found a mutual area to photograph and thus you see the shot here.  This was after he had eaten the bit of bread I had tossed and I guess was demanding more. The look was arresting to say the least!

       I really enjoyed the color on this painting and have plans to complete more poses of this bird.  I hope you like the painting as much as I loved creating it!

The Beggar~ Acrylic~12 x 12 Deep edge canvas