Skip to content
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • About Our Staff
    • About Our Board
    • Our Commitment to Diversity
    • GGBA Code of Conduct
    • Strategic Plan
    • Annual Report
    • Job Opportunities
    • GGBA in the News
  • Blog
  • Osprey Cam
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Us
    • Join/Renew
    • Donate
    • Other Ways to Give
    • Planned Giving
    • Member Login
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Violation Report
Golden Gate Bird Alliance
Golden Gate Bird Alliance
  • Education
    • Speaker Series
      • Past Speakers
    • Eco-Ed for Kids
    • Classes
      • Birding For Everyone Scholarship
    • Rotary Nature Center
  • Conservation
    • Conservation Info
    • Christmas Bird Counts
    • Bird-Friendly Coffee Club
  • Volunteer
  • Bird With Us
    • Birdathon 2023
    • Field Trips
    • Classes
      • Birding For Everyone Scholarship
    • Christmas Bird Counts
    • SF Bay Ospreys
    • Travel With GGBA
    • Birding Sites
    • Birding Resources
  • Archives
    • Trip Reports by Year
    • Past Speakers
    • The Gull Archives
    • GGBA Press Releases
    • Travel with GGBA – Past Tours
  • Log In
  • Donate
  • Become a Member
Golden Gate Bird Alliance
Golden Gate Bird Alliance
  • Education
    • Speaker Series
      • Past Speakers
    • Eco-Ed for Kids
    • Classes
      • Birding For Everyone Scholarship
    • Rotary Nature Center
  • Conservation
    • Conservation Info
    • Christmas Bird Counts
    • Bird-Friendly Coffee Club
  • Volunteer
  • Bird With Us
    • Birdathon 2023
    • Field Trips
    • Classes
      • Birding For Everyone Scholarship
    • Christmas Bird Counts
    • SF Bay Ospreys
    • Travel With GGBA
    • Birding Sites
    • Birding Resources
  • Archives
    • Trip Reports by Year
    • Past Speakers
    • The Gull Archives
    • GGBA Press Releases
    • Travel with GGBA – Past Tours
  • Log In
  • Donate
  • Become a Member
 

Rita Sklar: Sharing the joy of birds in art

  • April 27, 2014

By Ilana DeBare

Looking at Rita Sklar’s vivid paintings of birds, you’d think she’d been wielding both binoculars and brushes since she was a child.

But it’s been less than two decades for both.

Sklar – a prize-winning Oakland painter who will be exhibiting her work at our Birdathon Awards Celebration on Sunday May 18 – received her first set of paints as a 10-year-old. She took to them with gusto. But then she abandoned painting in junior high and didn’t pick it up again until around 2000, when she took a watercolor class in Spain.

That was soon after she first started paying attention to the birds all around us.

“I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t even notice birds for most of my life,” Sklar said. “Then I was walking around Lake Merritt for exercise and I noticed some ducks, and saw that some looked different from the other ducks, and that led me to start walking around with a (bird) book. I was getting less exercise, but I was getting more fascinated.”

Rita Sklar in her studio / Photo by Ilana DeBare
Rita Sklar in her studio / Photo by Ilana DeBare

Sklar joined Golden Gate Audubon and started going on field trips with volunteer leaders like Bob Lewis and Rusty Scalf. She began learning about the environmental threats to bird populations.

That launched her on a series of paintings of birds in decline – at-risk species such as Nuttall’s Woodpecker, California Thrasher, Tri-colored Blackbird, and Surf Scoter.

Nuttall's Woodpecker by Rita Sklar
Nuttall’s Woodpecker by Rita Sklar

Some of her works are traditional watercolors. But others are experimental or mixed media. Her Surf Scoter painting (shown next to her, above)  is a collage that incorporates fragments of pages from a report about the Cosco Busan oil spill.

“I like trying different things,” Sklar said, taking a break in her cozy Dimond district studio, where the walls are covered with her prints and paintings. “My quail painting is on rice paper, and my Canvasback is on Yupo, which is a kind of plastic that doesn’t absorb the paint.”

Canvasback and Scaup by Rita Sklar
Canvasback and Scaup by Rita Sklar
California Thrasher by Rita Sklar
California Thrasher by Rita Sklar

Sklar doesn’t typically paint in the field. She works from photographs – either her own or more detailed close-ups by local bird photographers like Bob Lewis. In recent years, she has moved towards combining realistic bird images with abstract backgrounds as in her painting of Black-necked Stilts in flight.

Winged Migration in Black and White by Rita Sklar
Winged Migration in Black and White by Rita Sklar

“I did the birds first, then I covered them with a frisket (protective coating) to protect them,” she recounted of the stilt painting. “Then I just wailed into the painting with color. I was pouring paint, letting it drip, moving it back and forth, adding more color. The white of the tail feathers is the paper itself. Most of the white on my birds is not painted – it’s the paper that has been protected.”

Sklar has received growing recognition for both her bird paintings and her paintings of people. A prominent Bay Area hospital recently identified a series of 11 paintings for purchase. Sklar’s stilt painting – called “Winged Migration in Black and White” – was given an Award of Distinction by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. in 2013.

Why choose to paint birds?

“I want to share the feelings of joy I have when I see birds,” Sklar said. “Their beauty, how excited I am about their flight, their wings, their beak shape.”

Want to see her actual work, rather than a meager blog-sized image? Sklar’s paintings – of both birds and people – will be on display at the Montclair Gallery in Oakland for two months starting on May 13.

Or come to the Birdathon Awards Celebration! Sklar will be there in person along with a selection of her paintings. And for every piece she sells at the Birdathon Celebration, she will donate 25 percent of the proceeds to Golden Gate Audubon.

————————————–

The Birdathon Awards Celebration is open to everyone, whether you went on a Birdathon trip or not! Join us for gourmet appetizers, boutique wines and artisan beer on tap from Linden Street Brewery – as well as optics demonstrations, live jazz, and door prizes. It’s from 3 to 6 p.m. on Sunday May 18 at a private location in the Oakland Hills. Tickets start at $35 ($20 for students.) Click here to buy tickets, or here for more information. The deadline to sign up is May 8.

PrevPreviousPreparing for Alameda’s Least Tern nesting season
NextA Condor at the PinnaclesNext
Facebook Instagram Youtube Twitter

Follow Golden Gate Birder by email

Click to follow our blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Subscribe

Loading...
A Day in the Life of a Climate-Friendly Birder
August 14, 2023
Lights out for Larry: The Burden of Brightness on Birds
August 8, 2023
Dotson Family Marsh− How We Got This Great Gift
July 27, 2023
How to Thrive as an SOB (Spouse of Birder)
June 28, 2023
The Berkeley-Stanford Birdathon
June 22, 2023
The Curious Case of Mama Kite
June 14, 2023
Birdathon 2023 Breaks Records
June 8, 2023
These Binoculars are Out of this World!
May 10, 2023
From the Sierras to the Mojave: A Search for the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo
May 3, 2023
The Golden Gate Gulls Go Birding
April 25, 2023

Our Mission

To inspire people to protect Bay Area birds and our shared natural environment.

Our Vision

A world where birds, wildlife, and all people flourish together.

Home page photo of a Bald Eagle by Rick Lewis. Home page photos rotate on an occasional basis. If you have a Bay Area bird photo you would like us to consider, email us at rnakano@goldengateaudubon.org.

Home page bird illustrations by Tex Buss. We are grateful for her generous donation of time and talent!

Facebook Instagram Youtube Twitter

Contact Us

Golden Gate Bird Alliance
2150 Allston Way Suite 210
Berkeley, California 94704

Phone: 510.843.2222

Office hours: Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Golden Gate Bird Alliance is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Our federal tax ID number is 94-6086896

Join Our Email List

Sign up to receive our eGull newsletter and get updates on other Golden Gate Bird Alliance news and opportunities!

Subscribe
© 2023 Golden Gate Bird Alliance | All Rights Reserved
All photos on this site belong to the photographers and may not be used without written permission.
  • About Us
    • About Our Staff
    • About Our Board
    • Our Commitment to Diversity
    • GGAS StrategicPlan
    • GGAS in the News
    • Job Opportunities
  • Education
    • Speaker Series
      • Past Speakers
    • Classes
      • Rotary Nature Center
    • Eco-Ed for Kids
  • Volunteer
  • Conservation
    • Bird-Friendly Coffee Club
  • GGAS Archives
    • The Gull Archives
    • GGAS Press Releases
    • Travel with GGAS – Past Tours
    • Past Speakers
  • Bird With Us
    • Field Trips
    • Travel with GGAS
    • SF Bay Ospreys
    • Christmas Bird Counts
    • The Gull
    • Golden Gate Birder Blog
      • Birdathon 2021
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Member Login
    • Trip Reports by Year
    • Contact Us
      • Join/Renew
      • Other Ways to Give
      • Planned Giving
    • Member Login
    • Volunteer Hours Reporting
    • Birding Resources
      • Conservation Info
  • Blog
  • Donate