White Light by Matthew Hillier ~ A favorite subject of mine, peacocks are such elegant birds and great fun to paint. This, however, is the first time that I have tackled a white one.

Known as the bird with one hundred eyes, the peacock has been prized by many cultures throughout the ages. The peacock is the male of the species known as peafowl, which are related to pheasants. Peafowl come in a wide variety of colors due to selective breeding and can live more than forty years, given ideal conditions. The India blue and the green peafowl are two of the most common forms found in the wild. This white variation of the peacock is not albino as some might think, but a recessive mutation having a dark, rather than red, iris.

In courtship, the peacock fans his long ornamental feather train in a dazzling display to impress the female, known as the peahen. Both genders share the feather crest, resembling a crown. Their offspring under one year of age are known as peachicks.

White subjects such as this one are particularly exciting because they give you an excuse to paint all the lovely lilacs and golds in the shadows. One usually associates peacocks with a riot of color. However, white contains all of the colors of the spectrum. This painting is loose rather than detailed, and as such, is really a study of warms and cools and color; hence the reason for the title, White Light. - Matthew Hillier