I’ve always wanted to paint a Desert Cardinal. It’s colloqually called a “Desert Cardinal” since no one can pronounce Pyrrhuloxia! It has a chunky seed crushing bill that’s a little different than it’s Northern Cardinal relative. I imagine from an evolutionary standpoint it needs that heavier bill since it resides in the desert scrub of the Southwest and outside of sunflower seeds from backyard feeders it eats from fruit from local scrubs and cacti. It’s described a tough-as-nails bird.
When I set out to paint it, I knew I needed a Southwestern pattern. I already had a New Mexico roadmap from the last 1950’s for the background. For a color scheme, I was thinking of muted color(s) paired with a strong color(s) similar to a Navaho blanket. I also occassionally quilt and found an “Aztec Star” pattern. Perfect!
I drew out the design on graph paper and numbered each segment. This helps keep straight what piece gets what color and aid reassembly. The gray pieces are stained with Payne’s gray. Payne’s Gray has a slight blue tint. The blue pieces are done in my current favorite color; manganese blue hue. After I painted the bird I added a border to the star using part of the map that lists mileage between cities. I stained these small strips using cadmium orange medium hue. The finished piece is 12 X 12
