In my paintings, color combinations are very important. Sometimes the colors of a background are just begging for a certain complementary color. The kestrel’s colors fit perfectly into this background of bluish to yellowish lichens and mosses.

Kestrels spend a lot of time hovering in the air, looking for food on the ground. Their colors are usually not so easy to see. Only when they fly in front of forests or mountains does their real beauty become visible. I wanted that excitement in my painting, so I used a quiet, dark background, in which I let the bird sit instead of fly. This way the viewer can forget his frustration about wild birds that always fly away and never can be watched for very long.

In nature, things are often passed by without close attention. When one starts painting them, they become fascinating, like this riverbank.

- Carl Brenders