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Augurs in Naivasha

Gene is an augur buzzard rescued by Shiv Kapila with the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust, in Naivasha. While somewhat shy, he is less reclusive than his cousin and neighbor, the Black Goshawk. He poses with austere dignity on a branch in his spacious enclosure, calmly awaiting his impending release.

Range Map of the Augur Buzzard

About the painting:

I created this painting while vacationing at Diana Beach on the coast of Kenya (I traveled with my paints, paper and 3ft x 2ft lightbox!), using reference photos I took while visiting the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust in Naivasha, a few months earlier. I was captivated by Gene’s stoic poise and piercing gaze and loved his chic black and white ermine-style plumage. As usual I composited several photos to get the right pose and transferred outlines to paper, which I taped to my lightbox. I was happy with the deliberate blooms and the rich ochre coloring of the background panel, which I think offsets his minimalist plumage colors and beautiful patterning quite well. The whole work was done with a combination of wet on wet, wet on dry and glazing, with detailed over-painting restricted to the eyes and beak.

You can see a step-by-step process slideshow in my CREATIVE PROCESS section.

To see a high resolution image of the artwork and to learn more about Augur Buzzards, check out my GALLERY section