Chickadee

Chickadee

Watercolor, 2012

9" x 12"

Work has been hectic. I spent 2 weeks in Paris, no painting, landed back in Colorado with two weeks playing "catch up." No painting.  Luckily my wife carved a weekend off so that we could go to the cabin and chill out a little bit.  Rather than taking it easy and enjoying life, I decided to paint. (joking, painting is fun, frustrating, rewarding etc.)

Also, I was inspired at the Art Students League of Denver's Art Market that was on last week.  Many great Colorado artists were there.  I got to talk to Steve Griggs for awhile about watercolors!  He is a lovely man and a special artist.

I've painted chickadees a few times but not using my newly-learned "bird" techniques of the last few months.  Chickadees, they're such fat little fellows, seemingly not very aerodynamic. This painting seems a little "stiff" to me, there something not quite right about it, but considering what some of my other paintings turn out like, I'll take it.

For all my birds I start with a couple of drawings. My goal is to get the lines and proportions right.  I'm reading a book called "The Golden Ratio," by Mario Livio, and so I am trying to pay special attention to how things are naturally put together.  A good painter instinctively knows where to place objects on the page and many times The Golden Ratio comes into play where things look prettiest.  The idea that beauty, mathematics, and nature all intersect is a very compelling idea and the best art work usually has a few Golden Ratios in them.  In this case, I tried to make sure the head of the bird, the beginning of the tail and the end of the tail add up to the Golden Ratio.... not sure how close I came and who knows, maybe that actually hurt the painting.  Oh well, I have a scientific mind and like paintings, its fun to think about.

I used my Windsor Newton pan of watercolor paints and used Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umbre, Raw Sienna and ivory black (for the eye).  I switched to the Arches 140lb Cold Press on this one.  (I left my Hot Press back at home.)  I also used a new brush.  Steve Quiller Rickesen Professional 7000 (number 7) - I like it!  Very inexpensive but has a nice tip and loads well.