First Year

Walking around Ocean Point, a young, first year gull demanded our attention from a shoreline rock where he was loudly crying or complaining. I don’t know if he was starving or if he lost his food but I saw a bright orange peach lying on the beach below him, just out of his view. Either way, I threw him the peach and the crying instantly stopped. It was a striking scene that stood in my memory until I painted it - the frazzled, hungry bird’s feathers blended with the cloudy and foggy day, and the only color was the brilliance of the fresh peach.