I’m pretty sure everyone knows what a heron is. How about the Zorn palette?
It is named after the famous artist Andreas Zorn; it is a basic palette of three colours:
cadmium red, yellow ochre, ivory black plus titanium white.
These are the colours I used for the following two paintings. The second painting is done with Payne’s grey instead of the ivory black; that is how that little touch of bluish tint was achieved. It is fun to experiment with such a limited palette.
Have a look at my models! This time the herons are my Heroes.
The herons are medium-to-large-sized birds blessed with the passion and patience of a fisherman. They usually eat what they catch, and only rarely throw it back. They can concentrate motionlessly on water for a long, long time, just as a good fisherman would.
On one occasion, I could see four herons during a walk. Of course, it could be that it was only one trickster just quickly overtaking me whenever I lost sight.
Another time, I had the luck to see how they “throw that spear”. I’m not sure if he/she caught anything, but after a good couple minutes of silent waiting, I saw a splash and then a splash-splash-splash a couple more times. Don’t they have a headache or neck ache like a rookie rocker after his first ever concert?
I don’t know, and I don’t know if that catch was a success, but his head was surely wet from the icy water. That should not happen with a good fisherman. After this scene, I was so happy to witness it, I was almost expecting David Attenborough to pop out from the bushes and explain in depth what I had just seen.
Well, that did not happen, but I found an anatomy picture of the heron’s spear neck to explain to you that is not broken.
Another time, I saw a crow bully an elegant torpedo-headed bird. The black bird /the little tough guy/ was watching from the top of a tree, and when the heron decided to go, he flew after and attacked in the air.
The heron easily cruised away, but every time the crow flew by, he let out a loud noise that sounded like a raspy sheep. Who knows what secrets they still hide? Or it could be that he’d had a lamb for lunch.
After so much adventure with these lovely birds, I happily featured them on this two paintings.
You can see these birds often in Milton Keynes in Ouzel Valley Park. Surely you can spot them around any waterside.
Thank you for reading.