Ria Winters

The Broad-billed parrot of Mauritius

Aug 21, 2015

Bird lovers know the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius mostly because of its famous inhabitant, the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus). This giant flightless pigeon died out in the late seventeen hundreds, in less than a century after man set foot on the island. The Dodo was subject of paintings, animated...

The Cuban Macaw

May 26, 2013

So now and then I try to bring extinct parrots back to life with my paintings.

This effort is of the Cuban Macaw -- Ara tricolor -- that disappeared in the 19th century.

This beautiful orange-blue-and-brown coloured member of  the Ara genus lived in the damp forests of West and Central Cuba. It...

Vosmaer’s Eclectus

Aug 13, 2011

The Eclectus parrot is a challenge to portray. The red of the female is so bright that it's difficult to render it correctly in paint. To determine the green of the male needs preparation because it's a matter of choosing the right tones which are quite different from the greens of grass and...

Some island species

Jul 23, 2011

Since the time I've started to paint parrots, many years ago, I grew more and more fond of island species. One reason is their unique individual appearance and the other their almost consistently threatened status. Many island species are rare and under threat of habitat loss, trapping and even...