Sunset Flight - Bald Eagle

The development of Sunset Flight

Artist's Comments

Bald Eagle sightings were such a rare occurrence for me while I was growing up. Even today, with their numbers increasing and more frequent sightings, it still puts me in a state of awe every time I spot one in the wild. Couple this with the beautiful sunsets we have in my part of the world, and you have the conceptual basis for my painting: Sunset Flight.

I chose to portray the eagle flying primarily towards the viewer. This in turn created a very strong angled slash in the painting’s composition. To compensate for this, I depicted the shape of the clouds and the placement of the setting sun to act as a counterbalance.

Often times as I was working on this piece in the evening, I would step outside my studio door and look back and forth from the setting sun and clouds to my painting to gauge how it was progressing.  When a visitor stopped by my studio one evening and commented that both were equally breathtaking, I knew I had achieved my goal.