Flying jewelry box

"Flying jewelry box"

I must first of all give a great debt of gratitude to Debi Parnell, 

the photographer that is allowing me to use some of her images for paintings.

She is truly a gifted photographer and someone I am glad to call friend!

Some of the imagery will be directly taken from the photograph, 

lots of them will be used as part of a larger piece of art. 

I am fascinated by these birds as I'm sure a lot of you are.

Their antics while flying are a sight to behold indeed!

We have a feeder outside the kitchen window.

 Invariably I see the one that decides this is his feeder and no one else's.

He proceeds to chase off anyone that dares to enter his space.

Not so when I was a teen in California.

We lived in Sunnymead, which is like a suburb of Riverside.

Our home had a large cover over the patio with an umbrella style clothesline.

The patio had four poles, each of which had a feeder on it.

The dining area had two large sliding glass doors.

Every morning, my father would watch the ensuing show put on by the local hummingbirds.

He would drink coffee and smoke a cigarette as the dawn came up.

Without fail, during the right season the show would begin.

We would have literally dozens of hummingbirds come to eat.

These birds would line up in their respective pecking order.

Yes, these hummers actually took turns!

Mind you, there were a few that were monitors of the line, but most actually waited their turn.

The monitors would knock back the ones that tried to cut in, zooming and 

chasing them to the clothesline or off into the distance.

It never failed to be extremely entertaining.

They also knew my dad would watch them each morning.

Thus, one morning early he found them hovering by the back door instead of the feeders.

Strange behavior indeed!

Turns out, they were hungry and the feeders were empty.

My father filled them, and the party ensued again.

They were a beautiful, flying jewelry box part of our California lifestyle.

Ruby male, Acrylic on canvas, 4 x 12

Day 20 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2022