Bald Eagle in the Fall

A bald eagle gives a slightly menacing look as he glides past the fall landscape on foot.

This artwork is actually based on a recent event. Very loosely based, actually.

One day recently, Laura and I were driving home from somewhere along one of our rural roads here in West Tennessee. As we were going along, I spotted a bird in a tree, which is not all that unusual. As we got closer, the bird started to fly out of the tree and across the road in front of us. At that point, I realized that the bird was a bald eagle. Laura saw it, too, because she said, “Was that an eagle?” I confirmed that it was, just as her statement had confirmed it for me, and we talked about how cool it was to see an eagle.

Eagles are known to spend the winter at Reelfoot Lake about eighty miles north of here. Several people go to Reelfoot each year to see the eagles (not the Eagles, as in the band or football team). We have also seen an eagle nesting at Shiloh National Military Park, which is about sixty miles east of us (as the eagle flies). So there are obviously eagles in our area at times. But we have never seen an eagle around here in our immediate area until now. So now I am always watching, just in case we happen to see another one some day.

Artistic License

Of course, the bald eagle that we saw flew over the road in front of us instead of strutting along on the ground, as this one is doing. But why not have a little fun with it?

I did not have my camera with me, and it all happened so fast that even if I did have my camera, the eagle was gone before I could take a photo. The same goes for my phone. I suppose that if we had a dash camera in our car, we might have captured it that way, but we don’t have one.

So instead of drawing a typical “bald eagle soaring through the sky” thing, I decided to draw this tough-looking eagle instead. They always look so serious in photos, so our eagle here is serious, too. And he might just come over there and wipe that smile off your face, young man. So you better behave!

I do not consider myself a “serious artist” in any definition of the words. I do not take much of anything seriously, actually. Except the important things, of course. So why not give this bald eagle a little bit of character? That was much more fun.

While there is a time for seriousness, there are a lot more times for fun.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:…a time to weep, and a time to laugh. - Ecclesiastes 3:1,4

About the Artwork

Because we saw the bald eagle in the fall, I decided to use a fall background for this eagle. The good thing about digital art is that if I ever want to change that out for something else, I can easily change the background to whatever I want it to be. Let’s see some of those serious artists with their paint and canvas do that! Is that how serious artists talk smack? Probably not.