The Watch: Anhinga, Animal as Metaphor 16 x 20 acrylic, glaze on canvas

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Day 15 of the Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days ( September challenge) and I am on......wait for it...........
Painting 5! Yikes this is the fourth painting I have done for the challenge.
For THE WATCH, I began painting with a brush since I was feeling burnt out on painting with the trowel knife.  I loved painting the first few paintings with a trowel tool but then I needed to switch it up a bit.
So I started this painting with huge brush-strokes and in the lines I saw what looked like an anhinga start to form. intuitively. I followed what I saw by outlining it a bit and decided that the anhinga was worthy of painting.

The anhinga can not fly until her wings are dry so she must exercise quite a bit of patience.
This anhinga is on the watch possibly with wings that have just dried and now she is ready to fly. Or perhaps she is getting ready for a swim.  
This bird is an astute swimmer and swimming is one of my favorite past times when it is hot out.  I can relate to the traits of this bird so the patient, flying, and swimming bird is a metaphor for a lesson in patience and recognition of the wonderful traits of this bird.