Sometime ago I was asked to paint
the Currituck Duck Hunting Club by one of the club members. The experience turned
out to be one of those definitive moments for me. It was winter and this is
the oldest duck hunting club in theUnited States. I sat in a hunting blind in
the snow and watched white Whistling Swans fly through the snow filled
sky. White on white flying in from the Arctic. I saw a raft of them three quarters
of a mile long on the water, pintails, canvasbacks, and redheads. I've never
seen so many. There are 300 in this painting. Every night I about froze in my
bed not realizing I was too stupid to turn on the electric blanket! I loved
every moment. Unfortunately, the area is now over- developed and I worry about
the birds.
This was the most popular painting
at my 1991 twenty-year Retrospective at the SoutheasternCenter for Contemporary
Art.