Color More than Skin Deep

I recently read two very interesting articles in 'Science Daily' about colors in bird feathers. According to Yale university researchers 'some of the brightest colors in nature are created by tiny nanostructures with a structure similar to beer foam or a sponge.' One of the paper's authors also explained that better plumage meant better mate :) In the second article " Birds: Feather color more than skin deep" a team from Spain reported on how the red feathers get their color: " the red carotenoids that give the common crossbill its red coloration are produced in the liver, not the skin, as previously thought " Even though I don't need to know these facts at all, I appreciate nature's ingenuity as I try to reproduce on paper the beauty of the birds, the flowers and other wonders.

In "tourist attraction" done in watercolors (15x12"), I tried wet on wet for textures and color variations and changes. I choose some colors from references and others from my imagination. The colorful birds and the flower needed the dark background to shine and that only came about after many days of pondering! My apologies for the reflection in the photograph - I didn't notice it until I posted it on the blog.