The Waiting Game

14" by 18"
Oil on canvas
2015

It's 2016! To start off the new year, here's a painting that I completed a while back. One of the larger works I've done, it shows a Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) by the edge of a reservoir, waiting motionlessly for its prey while the day warms up around it. The heron has an unbreakable patience and focus; it's survival depends on it. When it hunts, everything balances on a single moment, an opportunity to strike. While the heron plays the waiting game, the sky is restless, with clouds stretching, curling and vanishing. A hunting heron will not and must not look around at the scenery that is full of life - but a full heron may.

I took around one-and-a-half months to finish this one. To get a better idea on how to create the landscape, I visited some of the wetlands in the North of Singapore, which helped show me what types of plants to paint too. Anyway, there it is. Hope you like it!