Robert Bateman Presents "Goldfinch with Mullein"

"In this painting, I like the way the old leaves have a textured, sculptural quality that relates to the eroded embankment. The soft, adulatory forms of the grassy hillside are a backdrop to the sentinel-like ramrods of mature mullein stocks. Although many consider them just weeds, to me the mullein plants have the nobility of some ancient aristocrat. The goldfinch is not an afterthought. I put him in the painting partly to give scale, and partly because he is usually found in this type of habitat. I left the bottom unfinished because I enjoyed the sketchy quality of my brush strokes, and I liked the artistic element provided by the white negative spaces." - Robert Bateman