Home of the Heron

Years ago I worked in the Art Museum at Princeton University which owns an Inness "Home of the Heron" painting. I used to view it frequently, and could not help but notice that Inness, in this painting and the more famous one in the Art Institute of Chicago, despite the title, or maybe because of the title, obscures the heron. Well, I could not miss this heron. Since the canal has sunk so low, the herons are less skittish, and don't fly away if you stand there looking at them. They just look back, or keep going about their business. I saw a heron recently that speared a fish, tossed it up, and swallowed it in one, flowing movement. Since it was a large fish, I could see the lump move down it's thin neck.

This is a 9x12 pastel on pastelmat paper. I focused on some areas, and left others fairly sketchy.