Critters and CreationsArt by Carol May
God has given us many gifts of critters and creations here on this earth and I enjoy the challenge of painting them. I enjoy looking at them, photographing them, and painting them.
Sometimes I just enjoy them for a long time before I paint them, such as the giraffe. I love how God put spots on the giraffe to camouflage them up in the trees. The sun and shadows in the leaves are echoed by the markings on the giraffe. I thought about this for a long time and finally did this giraffe painting, "Spots". 
Another challenge was the pink flamingos. They have a unique shaped bill made for scooping through the mud to filter out critters for eating. I painted the upright ones just fine, but then I got all confused when I was painting their reflections in the water. So I turned the canvas upside down and painted “Flamingos Feeding”. 
When we first moved to Florida I was so amazed by the brown pelicans. One day I took a photograph of one sitting on a post. Generally I would see them standing on the posts, but this one was sitting on the post. It was interesting to me and my husband said, “He is trying to lay and egg.” I decided to paint “him”, hence came “Pelican Resting”. 
One of God's beautiful critters and creations are bluebirds. We have a bluebird nest in the front yard and we enjoy seeing them come to our back yard to use our birdbath. I took a photo and painted the bluebird “Cleaning Up”. 
My husband accidentally caught a sea turtle while he was fishing. He brought him home for me to see. We then took him down to the water to release him and when we got close to the water his legs started going like he was swimming. And I saw a tear coming out of his eye; I said "Look he is crying”. “Bold Freedom”is showing him happy and boldly swimming around in his God given freedom.
Manatees are popular here in Florida, also. Here is a “Happy Manatee” enjoying her baby. 
When I grew up my parents had a retail/wholesale tropical fish business. We had numerous outdoor ponds. And the fish would swarm around when we fed them. Hence came the “Koi Feeding” painting. My husband said they just ate Jimmy the Cricket, and the one with the white head is the ring leader.
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One of God’s amazing critters and creations is the leafy seadragon. They are native on the coral reef off of Australia. They are a quiet animal related to the Sea Horse. They camouflage themselves in all of their leafy appendages and wait for small fish to come by so they can suck them up. Amazingly they grow to about 18 inches long. I painted “Leafy”. Do you see two leafies, one is camouflaged?
I did this painting of “Country Barns” on a trip to the New England area when the trees were in fall color. I was especially intrigued by the shadows on the front barn. It contrasts wonderfully with the back barn in full sun light. The barns are different styles as happens when they are built years apart. It makes an interesting landscape painting. It was privileged to win a "Best of Show" at a local art show in Calif.
