I found this group of Ptarmigan on Snoqualmie Mountain abou 50 miles east of Seattle in October 2008 and painted both the landscape and the birds from photos I took of them. It was one of the last three paintings I did, back in March 2015, before my hands became too weak to use a paintbrush. Some people suggested that I could keep painting by holding the paintbrush in my mouth, but as far as I know, those people never actually tried it. Drooling is a problem with that approach.

I painted this painting in the winter and spring of 1981 in between kayaking trips. The bird is a Prairie Falcon and the landscape is the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs CO. Prairie Falcons (though not this individual, which is a semi-tame falconer's bird) nested in the gray crag in the background that spring and one of them actually perched briefly in the small pine at the lower left of the painting while I was sitting quietly on the ridge working on the rocks under the bird. Those rocks gave me a lot of trouble; I repainted them at least twice. I had a hard time with the sky too, but the bird and the landscape went pretty easily. Perhaps if painting had not been so difficult, I might have become an artist instead of a programmer. I liked how the painting turned out despite its flaws, and am grateful for memories of watching the Prairie Falcons chasing pigeons around the crags at Garden of the Gods while I was out there working on it.