BIRDS OF PREY

"This may not be great art, perhaps, but I like to think it is great - or at least good - portraiture. It is a simple painting of a highly detailed gyrfalcon against a neutral, cloudy sky. Done this way, the sky serves a very real purpose: it gives the viewer's eye a place to rest, away from the detail, yet allows it to return to study the detail. I've found this to be important, although a viewer may not be able to articulate why he does or does not like a particular work." Again, Coheleach has used his successful technique of victor and victim, but with the prey out of the picture; in this case, the feathers of a luckless ptarmigan drift from the gyrfalcon's talons as it rises and slows at the end of its swoop.