Spoonbill Tree
The Spoonbill Tree. 2026. New Zealand spoonbill. Original painting.
The fabulous leggy, beaky royal NZ spoonbill, and life on the estuary.
There is indeed a tree of spoonbills on the inlet at Motueka. These birds are funny and beautiful and super clever, and I wanted to paint them in their beloved, manky, half-dead pine tree.
Over the years, guana (poop) isn't very good for the tree, and the salt water probably isn't either. So I depicted this one with no foliage, which is an artistic simplification of the tree that's really there.
I adore painting shore birds, capturing the essence of an ordinary day on the Inlet, with the wildlife, the tides and the light all working in nature's harmony.
Details:
size: 430mm w x 595mm tall, oil on board in a really nice hand made timber frame.
shipping: The art will be carefully packaged for tracked courier. Collectors outside NZ or Australia, please use the contact page instead of the cart.