Coastal Art by Jillian

The Snowy Egret

It has been a long while since I have written anything here. Last October I had brain surgery for my Parkinson’s disease. While it did help me a great deal in managing my symptoms, I have had to relearn how to do many things: including walking, holding paint brush, and a pen.  I still have some tremors from time to time but mostly I would seem very normal to anyone observing me.

One of the critters that I came across during my recovery was this wonderful little snowy egret that we’ve decided to name Petey. We were out sailing with some friends and when we got back to the dock, this little snowy egret was waiting for us. He didn’t seem to be too afraid of us and as a matter of fact he took a few steps towards us and posed while we took some pictures of him.

I used the pictures as the basis for some paintings. One of these pieces, Petey II, won an Award of Merit at the Pinellas Park Arts Society. Experience with painting pictures of Petey made me want to try doing another American White Ibis. This is Iris and Iris won a third-place ribbon at The Suntan Art Center a few months ago. The birds have been very good to me.