Guests for Dinner, 24x18 Oil on Canvas by Carmen Beecher

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This Wood Stork is calmly looking over the Spoonbills feeding in Mrazek Pond in the Everglades. The Wood Stork puts his bill underwater and waits for his prey, then his beak snaps shut at lightning speed, 25 milliseconds. This is known as grope-feeding. The Wood Stork has one of the fastest reflexes of any vertebrate.

This was just sold by the Brevard Cultural Alliance (BCA) at the Melbourne Airport. We artists are so lucky to have the BCA and Lynne Brezina.

Carmen

Everglades Sunrise, 6x6 Oil on Canvas by Carmen Beecher

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This is a nostalgic piece, because it reminds me of camping in the Everglades with two Pieces of 8, Kathy and the recently departed Cindy (no, she didn't die, she just departed for North Carolina). This is a tiny little painting of the beautiful sunrise in the Everglades. I was disappointed to not see Spoonbills, but there was other wildlife: more alligators than I could count, and a huge, thick, black spider that got on my paper towels when I was painting. Thank goodness I noticed him before I grabbed a towel! 

We saw no pythons, but a recent python hunt brought forth over a hundred! They are ruining the ecology and hard to eradicate. When small game gets wiped out, large game leaves, and all sorts of things happen in the food chain. Just watch this video, "How Wolves Change Rivers"  and you'll see what I mean.

Carmen