The Coy Miss Mallards

A close-up view of two ducks looking astutely at the viewer. There's something highly engaging, and perhaps a little unsettling, about the way these young female mallards make eye contact with us over their shoulders from behind their wing feathers, says artist Emil Morhardt. I think that this painting transmits an enhanced feeling of avian intelligence and alienness quite different from our usual sense of dabbling ducks.