Labrador Guardian

Labrador Guardian

Original oil by Linda Besse

18" X 36"

A large buteo, the rough-legged hawk is the diurnal avian master of the arctic. It nests mostly from the edge of the tree line and north. Feeding almost exclusively on rodents, it hunts by gracefully hovering over fields, marshes, and tundra. On my WREAF trip in October 2008, I saw two light morph rough-legged hawks. One was in flight, the other on prey. I used my close-up reference shots of the latter one and moved him to a select spot of tundra which I saw on one of my hikes. Some of the tundra color had faded with the lateness of the season on that particular hike, so, I just made it earlier.

I do like “artistic license.” If my reference photos were perfect, I could just blow them up and stick them on the wall. No need to paint them. But if I want to capture the essence of the trip, the nuances, the moments that can happen in the wild, it takes some adjustment. Besides, I gave the hawk something to eat so I didn’t think it would mind. If you look closely, the “dinner” is an Ungava collared lemming. (Notice the tell-tale stripe down the back.)


Labrador trip 2008 links:
www.wreaf.org/WREAF_kamestatinExp.html

www.besseart.com/Labrador2008.html