Botanical Blue Hummer

Mixed media on canvas.

24x18"

Once while visiting a Hummingbird Sanctuary in Trinidad & Tobago I found myself surrounded by hundreds of the 17 different species that live there. With their varying male and female plumage colours and deep thrum of humming vibrating sound it was an iridescent multi-coloured kaleidescope of sensory input. I felt myself transported out of my body as if I had become a part of the wind and air swirling intoxicatingly around their flight paths. It was a transformative spiritual experience for me and the Hummingbird, already honoured as the spirits of our ancestors by Indigenous Trinidadians, was adopted as my spirit animal. The background of the painting began as leaves and flowers picked and foraged individually by hand, treated with alchemy and Eco-printed directly onto paper which I then collaged onto the canvas. The Botanical pigments and composition set the tone and suggest the bird or flower that want to enter the painting..