Great Blue Heron ~ "Feel The Sky" ~ "Oh, to Fly" ~ Watercolor

This great blue heron watercolor painting captures the moment a heron opens itself completely to the sky — wings spread wide, chest lifted, every feather reaching upward as if the bird is breathing in the entire atmosphere. I called it "Feel The Sky" because that's what I saw in this pose: not flight, not hunting, not even stretching. Something more elemental. A bird surrendering to the air around it.

I painted this piece freehand, alla prima (completed in a single session), in a single uninterrupted session on archival cotton rag paper using my Kissho Gansai watercolors from Kyoto. These handmade pigments — ground from oyster shells, mineral deposits, and semi-precious stones — produce the luminous blue-grays that define a great blue heron's plumage. Working wet-on-wet at this scale means every decision is final. There's no correcting a watercolor once the pigment settles into the paper. The painting either works or it doesn't. "Feel The Sky" worked.

This is one of the largest and most commanding pieces in my Oh, to Fly! collection — a body of work that explores the grand waterbirds whose movement and stillness stop you in your tracks. My training at the New York Academy of Art and 30+ years of life drawing are what allow me to paint a heron's anatomy freehand and have it feel alive rather than illustrated. The classical foundation isn't visible — it's felt. People tell me, "I don't know why, but your birds look right." That's the training talking. The Kissho Gansai pigments I use are handmade in Kyoto from oyster shells, mineral deposits, and semi-precious stones — the same ingredients that have defined Japanese watercolor for centuries.

This is a one-of-a-kind original. It exists once, and once it finds its home, it cannot be reproduced. Available with Optium Museum Plexi framing, complimentary insurance, and free shipping. A certificate of authenticity accompanies every original.

Materials:  Each watercolor original is unique, the only one of its kind. Created on 300lb Arches Watercolor Paper with Japanese Sumi-é watercolor paint designed to last a lifetime.

Framing: Each piece is elegantly presented with light grey matting in a handmade wooden frame with a grey-washed finish. UV plexiglass and archival materials ensure long-lasting preservation. Crafted with care, our frames are 1.5" deep and handcrafted from solid wood by our trusted local framer.

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