Ezra Tucker

Red-Tailed Hawk & Grey Squirrel

2025

Artist Comments
Artist Emil Morhardt paints a swooping hawk he observed circling the sky and then landing on a tall nearby tree. The bird inspects the many gopher holes nearby. Emil captures it just as it launches a successful attack—painting the plumage with fine detailed brushwork and intense colors against a pure white background. The piece embodies the essence of this powerful raptor.

About the Artist
Emil Morhardt is an acrylic painter from Santa Barbara, California who expresses his passion for birds through realistic acrylic paintings. He paints at home in a studio room that has large windows and a north-facing view of the mountains. He observes the animals from this window, watching roadrunners, foxes, bobcats, deer, and coyote run by. Surrounded by this wildlife, Emil paints bird portraits reminiscent of those by artist John James Audubon. He bases his paintings off hundreds of photographs he takes of birds in the wild and at wildlife recovery centers. Emil captures the freedom and inquisitiveness that birds display...