Snowy Egret IV ~ "Oh, to Fly" ~ Watercolor Framing:Unframed with the white head and

with the white head and tail emerging last from the surrounding darkness

I used Kissho Gansai pigments from Kyoto on archival cotton rag paper

The horned lark's markings are graphic and precise — almost like someone painted the bird's face with a fine brush before I got there

The most accessible original in my Little Wonders collection

The iridescent greens and blues were built through layered wet-on-wet mineral pigment washes

Snowy Egret IV ~ "Oh, to Fly" ~ Watercolor Framing:Unframed with the white head andThis snowy egret watercolor painting captures the most graceful of all white wading birds. Snowy egrets move like dancers quick, precise, unexpectedly nimble for their size. They shuffle their bright yellow feet in shallow water to stir up fish, and they strike with a speed that makes herons look slow. "Snowy Egret IV" is the fourth in a series of studies I've made of these birds, and each one teaches me something new about painting white. A white