Getting The Bird - a Plein Air Coastal Landscape by Marian Fortunati

Flying Home © Marian Fortunati 11"x14" Oil on Linen Panel

Why did I title this post this way?
This is the painting I started on the Wednesday morning of the CAC's monthly paint out.   We met at Malibu Lagoon all set for a great time together.  I was too ambitious however, because I started an 11"x14" even though I knew I had to leave early.  The fog was drifting above the hills and promised to burn off by lunchtime.  It was beautiful.  I was entranced while trying to capture the fluid colors of it, but, alas, never completed the lower quarter of the painting even though I had blocked it in.

I returned to Malibu Lagoon the next Tuesday to see if I could finish the painting en plein air, but the lagoon looked so totally different on that bright sunny day that I simply painted another small lagoon scene.  (Refer to my earlier post to see THAT painting.)  You could paint there every day and not repeat yourself.

Anyhow, I completed the beautiful lacy flowers in the foreground at home.   (Does anyone know what those flowers are?)  I liked the
color.  I liked the foreground flowers and grassy sandbars.  I liked the wispy fog creeping down over the closer hills and hiding the hills behind them.  However, after fooling with the painting a bit longer, I decided there was still something missing. 

The bird, of course!!

Getting to the point..
Egrets -- both the giant great egrets and the smaller snowy egrets were in abundance both days at the lagoon, so when trying to figure out how to make this painting more visually interesting, I thought I should add in a bird.  I had taken lots and lots of reference photos of the birds, so I chose one I liked and painted it in.  

There was still something not quite right about it so I asked my husband.   He said it needed another bird or two in the distance to lead the eye around.   This reminded me of another one of my  lagoon paintings ("Lagoon") (which recently sold --- YAY).  On that painting too,  I kept adding, painting over and changing the placement of the birds until it seemed "right". 

What do you think?
Did I get the bird....  right???   One, egret, two egrets, no egrets, more???   What's your opinion???

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