Very nice!

Splendid work on another amazing presentation, Carol. Your attention to detail and ability to inspire never cease to amaze me.

Another beautiful version of those eagles Carol. congrats my friend !

Beautiful image

Awesome Carol!

They are so beautiful. Xx

Fantastic! Crazy amount of detail here.

Amazing work. God bless.

Fantastic work...!!!

They are impressive & glorious!

Absolutely gorgeous image and beautiful verse. Outstandingly done!

Carol, this is magnificent!

Simply amazing Carol, I love this art of such handsome birds,b but then I always love seeing your artistry. Did you see we actually have photo manipulation here on Renderosity at last? It's about time they did that, I have just gone under that for my latest rendition. hugs Jane xx

Excellent!

wonderful image, excellent artwork!

Sometimes your backgrounds are basic hues, overlaying each other like sheets or clouds flowing over each other; and they feel like a deep sky of the soul. This is one of those backgrounds. (You had it in a safari-themed image too.) Some painters I know do beautiful subjects, but then fret like mad over the backgrounds: What do I put back there? How much? Will it detract? Esp in PHYSICAL media---where you can't delete and do over---they just tear themselves apart, and even throw out major works because their background wound up "ruining the piece" (their words). And finally, they just leave their backgrounds empty, dreading even 'touching' that space back there. ("I look at that space and I want to scream," said one artist, half laughing, half crying.) Boy do I know that feeling! (Well that's partly because I'm not half the artist some of them are...) But when I show them many great painters through the last 500 years, they discover that often their backgrounds are like this: Just hues, painted however the artist feels. Sometimes the artist will give those hues "legitimacy" (pre 20th C, before abstraction hadn't taken over), by making their hues into "cloths," or "clouds," etc. But you can see that the 'cloths' or 'clouds' are really excuses---mere excuses---to paint those hues, pure and simple. When I share those paintings with them, they sigh a sigh of relief: "Well if Rembrandt could do it, so can I..." Since your backgrounds are often so integral to your images, and further they're often as rich as your subjects, I think you find deep spiritual feeling in those backgrounds---and it shows. So you don't have to face that 'empty space' and scream "now what??????" Even in this background---which is less complex than your often highly floral-and-plant-infested backgrounds, or your undulating skies---you've imbued it with a flow from a deep place, inner to outer, deep hued to lighter hued, etc. Your background is more than background, in other words: It's the cosmos almost created by the birds, or in Communion with the birds. It's one of the things I'm heavily drawn to in your art. And, as I've said before, this type of background moves me for its spirituality, its layered feel, the edges of each layer, the cloud-smoke-spirit-like feel of it all, and how it sets off the birds too. I love the background. (And that special yellowish-orangish tan---an african hue to me. I love that.) The birds: No surprises here: Your detail is wonderful. The flowing lines of the feathers; the way they form 'waves' or torrents; the two darker necks or undersides, contrasted by the bright orange underside of the center-most eagle. (One would call this your basic design sense, coming from your years of experience and work). The beautiful textures of the neck-feathers. And the highlights---both in feathers and in beaks---which are lines of light, over and over. There you can see paint, paint, paint---even though this is digital---paint: Lush strokes of bright paint. The left-most beak is wonderfully paint-like. (It's so great to come to those broad paint strokes, after coming from all of the feathers.) And those fierce eyes---which seem like glass, compared to the rest of the bodies. And their grouping, here, have a monumental feel, as they're all lined up and looking into space for us. As if they posed for you. You portray animals in many postures and expressions; and every so often you make a 'monumental' presentation (fitting for eagles, certainly), where the animals seem to be showing their noblest side for us. It's grand. And you've modulated the background around the birds themselves---ie, knowing how to use background to set off subjects. (Lesson to painters: Vary those hues as they approach the subject: Don't be "true to what you see with the outer eye, be true to what you see with the INNER eye. Let the hues change as they approach your subject, let them commune, contrast, do dialogue, etc". You do that instinctively. I mean you, Carol, I'm speaking of you now.) A beautiful triumvirate, articulated with real panache and sensitivity. And highly passionate too. I didn't fav the last one---yikes! Ok, this will be a fav for both. (I just forget fav's after spending so much time with these images.) But it's marvelous. Man, these must be knockouts, full size---I mean real life full size. Another beautiful work by you. (Carol, I started here an hour ago and I have to go again. I didn't get here till 6 a.m. because of all kinds of stuff: But I'll come back again. I just saw that I spent an hour on two images---man, that's slow!!! Anyway, I immersed myself here twice in the last 24 hours, and it's glorious. You put a whole universe in to each work. Hard to believe each piece has a finite "size": I can see where you'd be emptied afterwards!)

Mark, thanks so much for your amazing and inspiring comments. It's interesting that you mentioned backgrounds, because I always spend a lot of time thinking about and working on the background for my art. They are such an integral part of the whole work, bringing everything together and creating the mood. Sometimes I agonize over the background more than anything else. Appreciate your many valuable insights.