There is an exciting tension in placing an animal just right, it seems to set off the landscape and definitely twerks the composition, like a zigzag incorporating the direction of the light, the bird's flight path, the feeling of "lift," setting off the formal composition of the water and land masses. Delightfully fun.
Newberry, Seagull at Picnic Island, 2020, oil on panel, 12×16″
Michael Newberry 