COURTSHIP

As today is Valentine's Day, it was thought it might be good to add this image, even if it is only a study and does not show the idea of the painting, which is love. This is a male quetzal, whose long breeding season tail will dominate the picture. I wanted him to look composed and patient, but in reality, there will be more tension than in any of the life and death scenes depicted in most of my work. There is to be a female quetzal, looking away from the viewer, and the amorous male. She is wary, non-decisive, as are so many courted females of the species, who are at that delicate stage of a relationship where they are not anwering their suitor's emails or phone calls. But this suitor is not annoyed or put off, he is patient, knowing his beloved is the one. The one and only on whom he must wait with masculine gentleness, overcoming her natural wariness. She will pretend for some time not to notice, but he is more persevering than she is hard to get.