Leucistic Hummingbird | Marie Cameron Studio

So happy to get to my first painting of the white hummingbird I had so gleefully stalked with my telephoto at the Arboretum in Santa Cruz a few months back. I have lots of plans for all photos I took of him but I wanted to start with something for my Birds & Teacups series. I paired him with a white Limogues T&V demitasse, which is a delicate and glowing as the bird, and a magnolia grandiflora bloom. If I’s wanted to be matchy-matchy I might have painted whit ivy, which seems to be depicts on the handle of the demitasse, but there’s enough magic and mystery going on in this image and I really loved the the scale of the flower compared to the bird and the cup.

Quick oil sketch in rose and vilolet tones.

Blocked in a whole lot of loose color, working largely dark to light.

Placing more halftones and highlights.

Blending.

Honing.

Refining.

Good day’s work but I ran out of daylight and objectivity. By Monday I should have more of both!

The Australian Garden at the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum has so much to offer, and while I was understandably blown away by the spectacular white hummingbird sighting, I thought I might share some of it’s other treasures…

Rare Leucistic Anna’s Hummingbird in the Grevillea.

Me in my official like birding outfit – meant to blend into the garden and attract hummers…worked!

Showy Banksia

Flight fight!

Showy Honey Myrtle

The Rufous and Allen’s Hummingbirds look a lot alike, the Allen’s is supposed to have two white spots on its tail tips instead of three like the Rufous, but even knowing this it’s still hard to tell as the Allen’s does have a sliver of white on that third feather and both can have a substantial amount of green on their backs – especially the juveniles and the females.