TWO FLICKERS
ACRYLICS ON CEDAR W/RED OAK FRAME
SPRING 2021

     Woodpeckers have always been especially enjoyable to see, maybe because they are not as common as songbirds and raptors here; and also, probably because they are quite flashy “dressers”.  Of all the woodpeckers that have visited us, our favorites are definitely Northern Flickers.  Their distinctive flight pattern, drumming sounds, and identifiable calls make them easy to spot from a distance, but when we can observe them up close, their amazing beauty can be fully appreciated.  Fairly large birds, their black neck bibs, splashes of orangish-red, spotted breast feathers, and tapering tail feathers make flickers a highlight of any day in which they are seen.  Their beauty inspired me to paint them again.  The style of this particular painting was inspired by a pair of painted cedar fusuma (sliding doors) by Rinpa artist Watanabe Shiko entitled Cranes (see Yasumura, Toshinobu, Rimpa: Decorative Japanese Painting, ©2011, pages 200-201).  Shiko simply painted his cranes directly on the wooden sliding doors at Daikaku-ji in Kyoto, and so I have painted my flickers in similar fashion, isolated but in harmony with the beauty of the wood grain.  The design for the flickers was influenced by both Northwest Coast Native and Celtic art traditions.  A Rinpa School inspired tarashikomi effect was used for the tree snag on which they sit.  I made the frame out of red oak using pegged, hand-joined, mortise-and-tenon construction methods.  I used the Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) of charring and oiling the oak to finish the frame.
 
DIMENSIONS:          HEIGHT: 23 inches
                                  WIDTH: 20 ¼ inches

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Watanabe Shiko's Cranes