Walk The Line: Bird Painting by kto ART

"Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it." Bob Dylan
Sometimes I'll get inspired by my morning walks with Kris and our dogs or draw from childhood memories. For today's painting, I took from my childhood and from my previous post "Hopelessly Devoted". After briefly writing about the California Quail in that blog post, I couldn't get the imagery out of my head. I'd find myself smiling to myself just thinking about those silly quails while in the middle of the market, looking like I'm making friends with the garlic heads. So I figured I needed to get this painting out of my system before people started talking...
The California Quail is CA's state bird. We apparently have them here in Hawaii now too, but I haven't seen them on the west side of the Big Island. In California, I would see them everywhere. I love the way they all move. Usually its just a big mess, babies whizzing by left and right with adults desperately trying to keep everyone in line. They get it all together just in time to cross the street in an orderly fashion, bobbing and weaving as they go. 
One thing I didn't realize is that California Quail live communally like a convoy of peacelovin' hippies :) With Father's Day coming up, it's good to note that the males associated with the group take care of all the babies while the females try to make more with a new male. Sometimes the caretaking male is not even the genetic father. Go Dads!

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