Just yesterday I was walking up the sidewalk to the house when I heard this buzzing sound behind me.  I’ve lived here long enough to recognize it as the sound of a humming bird’s vibrating wings. I turned around to see it needling its beak into the flowers in our front yard.

In the realm of music, humming occupies a low rung on the evolutionary ladder. This is an educated guess supported by my experience. I have often heard musicians who, upon taking a request for a song say, “I don’t know the title, but could you hum a few bars?”

In my painting below, the humming bird is surrounded by buzzing shapes. The humming sounds generated by those shapes are processed by the songbird and refined into more articulated sound, represented by smoother curves.

I enjoyed painting on a larger scale today. Some would argue that 12″x9″ is not that large, but compared to my recent 3″x4″ sketches, it is substantial.  With today’s painting, I also return to the representation of ideas in my paintings as opposed to figurative representation.

I like the change of pace.