Dune Birds In Art Finalist

My "Mourning In The Fog" oil pastel was accepted into the Dune Birds In Art exhibit, as part of the 2025 Indiana Dunes Birding Festival. I'm so pleased this piece was accepted, and it will show in the visitor center along with the work of 19 other artists.
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These birds suffered great loss on their journey this year, but they are survivors. The inspiration for this work was from a gorgeous photograph by Jeff Basham taken in my county (La Porte). He witnessed several dead sandhills when on site with these birds. Over 1,500 Sandhill Cranes died during their migration through Indiana due to avian influenza, and that was very much on my mind when working on this piece. This is not my typical highly detailed study of one singular crane. Instead, it's about the softer mood, the stoic grouping of the cranes, their strength in surviving avian influenza, and the toll this historic loss took on their migration.

This painting is done in oil pastel on brown mid-toned Canson Mi Tientes paper, which is fairly heavy with many layers of the oil pastel built up in a rather impressionist style – evoking the atmospheric quality of the original photo and the heaviness of the subject.

Great news is that the Nebraska sandhill cranes did not experience the same loss as the Indiana birds.

Dune Birds In Art exhibit runs May 15 - June 21, 2025 at the Indiana Dunes Visitors Center, 1215 N State Rd 49, Porter, IN.

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