So beautiful - very well done

superb

Excellent

Always stunning Carol a real pleasure my friend!!

Very, very beautiful!!

Amazing art work. God bless.

A feast for the eyes. Lovely work.

Splendid !

awesome done, love it very much

Wow!!! Simply gorgeous!!!!

this is gorgeous

Wow and wow again, this little chap could never be overlooked, he is so vibrant and so beautifully created, he screams hey look at me! Wonderful and quite superb Carol, hugs Jane xx

The deep blues, here, are in strong contrast to all the golds and golden yellows (opposites on the color wheel, complementary colors). So right off, your macaw is set apart powerfully. You've painted/textured the bird with lots of standout strokes---in the front of its body, and in its head and "mane". It has an almost Van Gogh intensity, in the strokes. The outer feathers have broader shapes, and your painterly feeling comes out especially strong in them. We can feel the painterly movement, as well as all the attention you give to each strand, each detail. These outer feathers have qualities similar to your flower paintings.

I also like the posture of the macaw---I don't know how much is Denise's and how much yours, but you brought out its "introverted" pose quite strongly. Or like it's contemplating something below. It's definitely absorbed in something...One of the things that makes your animal work stand out is that you don't just go for frontal "to the viewer" poses. You capture many poses, as animals show throughout a day. To meet the macaw's bending head, you have a deep, strong blue in the sky---like the darkened clouds flew over to meet the macaw's inward pose. A very powerful blue. And in very painterly strokes.

The branch that the bird stands on is also very painterly, and very dramatic. A whole maelstrom going on in there. And lots of swirling detail in its talons. You captured the convoluted nature of a bird's anatomy---you don't shy away from all that. You captured its beak in all its glory and decay too. Esp with those age fissures. (Until one looks closely at some of these big beaks, they don't realize how many shock marks and impact marks they have. And scratches and grooves, etc.)

The few flowers here are typical of your flowers---highly sensual, filled with convolutions, beautifully colored and applied (via strokes, etc). The sky is something out of Turner: one of those transcendent skies that seem to have the first day of creation in mind. As I say, it makes glorious contrast with the bird, both in hue and in forms/strokes/etc. And the heavier tones in the right-sky make fine contrast to all those yellows and golds in the left. (And ambers too. A beautiful sky you have here.)

It's very intense on the bottom---even the bird's lower section takes on a deep, dark blue. Here, you have a darker lower portion, as you do in many of your nature paintings; creating an 'inner ground' out of which your art arises. And the light on top balances that out. Plus the leaves, on the bottom, are like flame as much as like leaves.

This is a highly complex painting---there are lots of different worlds in it, textures, shapes, etc. You combined them all into a big pulsing symphony. And it's truly beautiful, Carol. I'll be back for more after I sleep. I've seen them (as you posted them, as well as this week), but I need to rest before I write more about them. These are a change from your alcohol based art, which was explosive in a whole other way, and they show how broad your range of expression is. I hope you're having a peaceful night, and summer overall. Your art is glorious.

Thanks so much, Mark, for your wonderful comment. Put me inside a puff of feathers, or animal fur, or a flower petal, and I'm a happy painter. Don't ask me why, I just love being there, in all that color, texture and detail. I also think the Hyacinth Macaw is such a gorgeous and majestic bird, along with having a delightful personality, so I wanted to emphasize that in the work. This is already a magnificent photo by Denise, so inspiring, and I simply added some color, drama, and detail.