A Great Blue Heron lifts from a marsh — wings spreading wide, neck curved, feet just leaving the water among the cattails and lily pads. This 1993 watercolour catches the heron in the most difficult moment: the transition from stillness to flight, the body not yet airborne, the wings not yet at full stroke. Glen solved it with loose, luminous watercolour washes for the atmospheric background and tighter, more deliberate brushwork for the bird itself.
The Great Blue Heron was one of Glen's most observed subjects — they frequented the wetlands near his Ontario studio, and he watched their hunting behaviour across all seasons. The scale of the bird, the architecture of the folded neck, the extraordinary reach of those wings: all of it is painted with the authority of long familiarity. Glen Loates is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts; his heron paintings are widely held in Canadian collections.
Glen Loates is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts whose work has been collected internationally for over five decades. Each bag is printed to gallery standards and built to carry the conversation wherever you go.
