Portrait of a

Double-crested Cormorant

12″ x 12″
Egg Tempera on Panel

Double-crested Cormorants are diving birds that feed mainly on fish. They can be found along coasts and inland waterways. I use my own photographs as reference images for my subjects. This adult in winter plumage was resting on a branch overhanging a canal off the Sacramento River in California. Cormorants do fish alone but more often than not, they can be seen in small groups, fishing for drying their wings in the sun.

In California, you can find cormorants almost anywhere there is a body of water large enough to maintain a food supply–in wetlands, along rivers, canals, city parks, bays, ocean beaches. During breeding season, adults develop tufts of feathers at the sides of the head. 

Egg-tempera is a medium that has been used for more than a thousand years. Artists grind their own pigments and mix with egg yolk. The egg yolk dries clear and binds the pigment particles to the gessoed panel. The paint must be mixed each day as the artist needs it because the egg will cause the paint to go bad if left out for more than a day. Egg tempera paintings have a luminous quality that is prized by those who work in it. We feel the quality of the color is worth the additional effort expended in making our own paint.