I am The Sunlight

AM THE SUNLIGHT was a studio painting, created from a small 6x16 plein air creation, from a trip to Ireland. Another painting, dedicated to my Dad. The original was much quieter in color, and as I finished it, a small sparrow type bird landed on the cattle gate, looking at me and then this painting. I thought “sure Billups it really cares!” Well, it must have heard those thoughts cause it looked at me again, and then directly at this painting...not once, but two more times! I got some seeds out of my pack, held my hand out for it, and it flew onto my thumb, took one, and flew off!

The next morning, I journeyed with a gentle man from Spain up to Ross Castle, and enroute, the same sort of bird landed in front of us. I got the Canon out, squatted to shoot a picture, and it flew 10 feet down the road. Well, I walked and squatted about 8 times, and finally gave up, Gabrielle laughing the whole time

That night I pulled my journal out to write about these two birds. In order to put the date down, I had to count backwards to figure out when we left the States, and discovered that the day that the bird looked at my painting, was the first anniversary of my Father's passing. So gifts come when we least expect them...and that day doing the small study, the sun popped out of the clouds, and that was the finishing touch and the reason for the title!