Parakeets Oil Painting by Mary Hughes

6" x 12" Commission

Jeff Saturday, Lenny, Ethel and Daphne enjoying togetherness with the backdrop of a colorful sky in motion. They'll be going home to mommy real soon. I wanted to light them from behind without losing their distinctive color. The nice thing about painting is you can break the rules, which I'm sure I have.

Mary Hughes Studio

e-mail

PG

Last night I sat down to watch "Nature" on PBS. They had a fantastic program on Parrots in Australia. Both history and present conditions, habits and just great film of all kinds of parrots. Not 10 minutes into the program I realize my birds would love this. So I went and got my cockatiels and put their perch where they could see the TV. They were loving it and pretty soon the segment on Parakeets came up and I went and got my parakeets. They were all chatting merrily watching larger than life images of their green cousins in the wild.

It didn't take long before the parakeet segment turned into birdie porn, but I decided this would save me the embarassment of explaining s e x to them later. They chatted louder and were engaging each other with their beaks during this roudy part of the program.

Then we got to see baby parakeets and their parents feeding them. My birds began mimicing the process.

Then we got to see the baby parakeets taking out on their own. Looking for their own food and exploring the wonders of the big world. Oh, but not for long for these babies have enemies. This great big long lizzard shows up. Oh lordy no. I don't want my birds watching their likenesses becoming dinner. I should have known any "nature" film would involve violence too. Like any good mother I ushered them out of the "theater", wondering at my own wisdom, taking them to the movies at such a tender age.

After they were settled back away from the violence I returned to watch the rest of the program and enjoyed it violence free. Then I wondered why I didn't just change the channel for a few minutes. :) Next time.