Blue Jay
Inspired at a young age by naturalist and wildlife realist Robert Bateman, I enjoyed studying photographs of native Canadian birds and trying to recreate what I saw on paper.
This illustration is a simple pencil on vellum drawing of an amazing photo (I have forgotten the photographer) of a blue jay perched on a leafless branch, defiant in the face of a cold winter wind.
I was lucky enough as a teenager to have studied under Julia Hawke, a very talented wildlife artist living and working in Oro-Medonte, Ontario, Canada.