Some new crow paintings and video

Got some great energy moving in my studio yesterday with some amazing music as I started (and finished!) two new ACEO paintings.   

I was listening to The Grey Dusk of Eve (Return to Portobello), a song by local band The Rankin Family.  This mysterious and powerful song always gets me fired up and really lets me get that paint moving.  I made a little video using the song and some of my crow paintings if you'd like to check it out, it's on the bottom of this post.

The warming sun of autumn got me thinking about Halloween and the brilliant colors of  golds and oranges in fall.  This little guy I call my "Halloween Crow".

I love the warm sunny days of fall and the freshness of the cool nights.  Here's "Moonlight Crow" out enjoying the brisk night air.

Last week my son and I went out on a photography expedition.  He hopped on his bike (he loves that bike!) and the two of us headed down to the running track.  I was in search of some good crow photos for reference pics.  I figured the track would be a good place to start  because there are always loads and loads of crows there.  

There was quite a few people around as it was a gorgeous evening and the sun was just starting to set.  People were out walking and enjoying the evening.  The crows were out too.  Watching us, anybody would have thought we were totally off our rockers for sure.  

We tried to sneak up on the crows to get their picture.  But of course they always KNEW we were there.  And would immediately start their funky walk in the opposite direction away from us.  I was having a hard time getting a front shot of them.  I could only get them from behind.  Well, duh!  We would get so close and then they would fly away.  I would just get them in my viewfinder, shoot and my camera was just fast enough to get the tail feathers as they took off.