Ancient Connections

Pelicans ink 5x8” by Meera Rao 

These birds fly, swoop, plunge dive, and skim the waters in groups, hunting for fish in the river.  They are never close enough or still enough for me to see all their beautiful details. Even their silhouettes have been a challenge to capture. I focused my binoculars and watched them for hours as I to tried to sketch their shapes. I finally had to shoot videos on my phone as they continued their activities. I resorted to  freeze frames as my reference to finally draw their outlines and silhouettes - that’s how I saw them anyway as dark shapes against the blue winter sky and water. 

The Brown Pelicans  (Pelicanus occidentalis Linnaeus) are considered the smallest of the 8 living species and have a wingspan of 6-7’. Pelicans are ancient birds with fossils going back to 30 million years! No wonder they have a long history and are hence steeped in mythology. 

Patient Pelican watercolor 6x7” by Meera Rao 

Patient Pelican is a painting from few years ago when I was able to see one up-close at the Virginia Living Museum.  Checking back on that blog post refreshed my memory of my experiments  painting grays. 

Then, I went surfing the web for this funny limerick on Pelican that I remembered from my school days ;) 

A wonderful bird is the pelican, 

His bill will hold more than his belican,

He can take in his beak

Enough food for a week 

But I’m damned if I see how the helican! 

~ Dixon Lanier Merritt~