Caught In A Blizzard, Woodcock 1932

Archibald Thorburn painted this woodcock watercolor in 1932. Look at the strokes he makes as he builds up the blue and grey sky around the bird, and then notice how differently he renders the bird itself. I imagine Thorburn carefully layering the shades of brown, gray, and white to describe the bird's plumage. There's a real tenderness in the making. I wonder if he felt protective of the bird, caught as it is in a storm? I love the contrast between the detail of the bird, and the abstraction of the swirling storm all around. The blizzard is captured with very quick, loose brushstrokes; in the context of the painting, these dabs of white, grey and blue are translated into a howling snowstorm. Painters are always in conversation with other painters across time. Thorburn's paintings of birds remind me a little bit of Audubon's; both men capture the beauty and vulnerability of birds in paint.