Many of the people I know consider the Red-tailed Hawk to be their favorite bird, and Red-tails are certainly one of my favorites as well. Since they are the common large raptor seen throughout the country, they are familiar to many people. They are bold raptors, full of charisma, and very colorful with that brilliant orange-red tail. I wanted the tail to be as brilliant as possible, so I painted the Red-tail from above, with the tail spread, set off against a deep blue sky and the darkest blue-gray color in the clouds. I chose to keep the clouds as large shapes rather than adding too much detail, so as not to detract from the hawk. This could be a summer day when the cumulus clouds are billowing up because of the heat, or a fall day at Hawk Ridge when the clouds are drifting by and the hawks are migrating. This is not just any hawk, this is my hawk, screaming its defiance to the world, born out of a boyhood spent climbing to hawk nests, and a complete fascination with raptors.