“Saxx”, the little sparrowhawk (Accipiter minullus), Signed and Numbered, Limited Edition, Giclée Archival Quality prints (run of 50)

Description

I am donating 25% of the proceeds from original and print/NFT sales to the Kenya Bird Of Prey Trust, in Naivasha.

Sax is a male, with striking russet plumage around his throat and along his flanks, with beautiful barring under his wings and belly. From Shiv Kapila, co-founder of Kenya Bird of Prey Trust, in Naivasha:

“Saxx was found at Elsamere on the ground as a very young chick. She had been blown out of a nest during a storm. I raised her then trained her for a couple of months. She then went up to Simon for further training and hunting. He released her after about 3 or 4 months.”

Little Sparrowhawks, while not endangered are not very common in Kenya, and can be hard to spot, preferring lightly wooded areas where their barred markings make for good camouflage.

Simon Thompsett, from KBOPT was kind enough to send me photos of Sax, as a juvenile and then as an adult.

I was inspired to paint a little sparrowhawk after seeing their larger cousin, the African goshawk at Kenya Bird of Prey Trust and then seeing its close relative and near-lookalike, the shrika on the website of KBOPT’s earlier incarnation, the Naivasha Owl Centre. I fell in love with the smoky grey head, soft gradation from grey to russet bars to white belly, and the doll-like facial features of this fierce little bird.

I loved the pose of Sax in flight and tried (not totally successfully) to capture that motion as if the bird had just alighted on a mossy forest tree limb.

I used the same techniques and approach that I had begun employing in my earlier bird and wildlife paintings, using a bloomed wet on wet background panel, bleeding color gradations wet into wet and using dry brush for extra texture. There is some gouache over-painting, which I typically am religious about avoiding it but this particular painting seemed to need it.

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

For details about the subject, conservation efforts and the painting, check out the work in my “Gallery” section.