(Sagitarius serpentanius)

This raptor of sub-Saharan Africa’s savannas, grasslands and shrub lands stands at nearly four feet tall—and standing is often how you’ll find them, because they primarily move around on foot. They fly only when necessary, such as to reach their nest in the trees and for courtship displays. They typically prey on snakes, lizards, and rodents, by flapping their wings for lift and balance and striking out with their impressively strong and sharp talons. They have quicker reactions than a black mamba snake!

The top half of its long legs has black feathers, so it looks a bit like it’s wearing bicycle shorts. The lower half is covered with scales and has barely visible feathers.

While it’s not known for certain where the name “secretary bird” comes from, one explanation is that they’re named after 19th century lawyer’s clerks, or secretaries. Secretaries typically wore gray coats and knee-length black pants, and they would tuck quill pens behind their ears, similar to the bird’s coloring and head feathers.

Human encroachment on secretary birds’ natural habitat has led the species to be classified as vulnerable to extinction. Some of its grasslands habitat has been burned and cleared for livestock. Those open areas leave little protection for prey animals, making it hard for secretary birds to find food.

Moneypenny was discovered on the Maasai Mara with a mutilated leg in October 2014. Beyond treatment, due to delays in her discovery, the leg was amputated when she got to Kenya Bird of Prey Trust in Naivasha. Simon Thomsett, one of KBoP’s founders created a bamboo prosthesis, which Moneypenny (named after James Bond’s secretary), adapted to quite well. Unfortunately on a very cold night Moneypenny got tangled up with her prosthetic limb and ended up sprawled on the cold ground, dying of hyperthermia overnight.

I never got the chance to meet Moneypenny, so this painting is characterized as “inspired by stories of” rather than a traditional portrait.

I found the image I wanted to paint, which was coincidentally taken by my friend Simon Thomsett, the co-founder (along with Shiv Kapila) of Kenya Bird of Prey Trust. He kindly, if after the fact, gave me his permission to use it as a reference.
For this painting I wanted to attempt a pure watercolor – no aquarelle pencils (except for parts of the face) and no gouache overpainting of feathers (though the matt background panel was done using gouache, which allows for very flat consistent color). This meant that every one of the many thousands of barbules highlights across all the feathers is painted by reverse, exposed-paper technique, so all the pale strands of feathers are painted around in darker pigment to leave the paler glaze showing as the feather. It is infinitely time consuming and slightly less realistic than simply painting feather barbs light-over-dark using gouache, but it’s also a bit satisfying in a perverse way, to stick to the purist “rules” of watercolor. I did use gouache and aquarelle pencils to add dimension to the pebbled skin around the eye.
Also, the only black pigment used in the painting is black gouache in the eyelashes. The black for feathers was produced by combining Payne’s Grey, VanDyke Brown, Prussian Blue and Alizarin Crimson. The pinkish grey feathers are a result of mixing Burnt Umber, Payne’s Gray and Burnt Sienna.

Make a statement in any room with this framed poster, printed on thick matte paper. The matte black frame that’s made from wood from renewable forests adds an extra touch of class.

• Ayous wood .75″ (1.9 cm) thick frame from renewable forests
• Paper thickness: 10.3 mil (0.26 mm)
• Paper weight: 189 g/m²
• Lightweight
• Acrylite front protector
• Hanging hardware included
• Blank product components in the US sourced from Japan and the US
• Blank product components in the EU sourced from Japan and Latvia

How to attach hooks on 24″ × 36″ horizontal frames:
Place each of the mounting hooks 1 inch (2.5 cm) from frame corners when hanging horizontally.

This product is made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why it takes us a bit longer to deliver it to you. Making products on demand instead of in bulk helps reduce overproduction, so thank you for making thoughtful purchasing decisions!

Age restrictions: For adults
EU Warranty: 2 years

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