Osprey Evening is an intense oil painting of this beautiful hawk flying by a lake at sunset.  I don't painting a lot of wildlife but when I do I want it to be special.  I am particularly pleased with the sensuous colors and textures that are as strong in the land and water as they are in the osprey.

 I have learned a lot of about birds from my husband, Clyde Kessler, who is a well-known naturalist in the New River Valley.  He has given me many ideas for painting vistas from the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway and surrounding area.  His discovery of the endangered Mitchel Satyr butterfly in 1998 is considered to be one of the most important wildlife finds in the second half of the twentieth century in Virginia.  I hardly knew one bird from the other before I married him and now I am familiar with quite a number of different species