Gallery

  • ‘Sumatran Tiger - Intensity’
  • 'Africa Dozing - White Rhino'
  • 'Africa Dozing - Lion'
  • 'Hastening - Paradise Shelduck Ducklings'
  • ‘Intimate - Pīwakawaka’
  • ‘Morning Light - Fantail’
  • ‘Reflections - Red-billed Gull’
  • ‘Intimate - Akiaki’
  • ‘Reflections - Juvenile Black Swan’
  • 'Intimate – Tūturiwhatu’
  • ‘North Island Brown Kiwi – In the Burrow’
  • 'North Island Brown Kiwi – New Arrival’
  • 'Reflections - Australasian Crested Grebes'
  • ‘Intimate - Pukeko’
  • ‘Black Vignette – Kingfisher 1’
  • ‘Black Vignette – Goldfinch 1’
  • ‘Intimate - Kereru’
  • 'Intimate - Tui'
  • 'Fantail Study 1'
  • 'Fantail Studies 2' (detail)
  • 'Short clawed Asian Otter Study 1'
  • 'Short clawed Asian Otter Study 1-1' (detail)
  • 'Ferns on Black - Moko 1'
  • 'Ferns on Black - Moko 2'
  • 'Rocks - Stratification'
  • 'Camelia'
  • 'Taranaki Footfills'
  • 'Brown Kiwi - Dusk'
  • 'Fantail Study 1' (detail)
  • 'Superb Fairy Wren - Wine Larking'
  • 'Fantail Study 1'
‘Black Vignette – Kingfisher 1’

‘Black Vignette – Kingfisher 1’

Painting description

Close-up of a New Zealand kingfisher.

Mediuim

Acrylic on stretched canvas gallery wrapped over a kiln-dried wood frame

Artist Statement

‘I love the colours of these birds; the way they add a brilliant splash of colour and the precision of their arrow-like flight. On cold grey days at Waikanae Estuary I would watch for the turquoise darting of kingfishers targeting crabs on the mudflats. I have fond memories of them framed by the arcing sprays of red flax flower

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About the animal

There are eight subspecies of Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) in Australia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Solomons, Indonesia, Lord Howe, Norfolk and Kermadec Islands and New Zealand.

Called the New Zealand kingfisher or kotare the New Zealand sub-species (vagans) is generally larger than the Australian sub-species. Kingfishers inhabit both woodlands and wetlands. They frequent coastal lagoons, rivers, estuaries, open country or the forest edge.

Painting Black Vignette – Kingfisher 1 by Marie-Claire Colyer