Female House Sparrow

Female House Sparrow

Watercolor, 2012
8" x 8"

Another weekend at the cabin, another bird, this one a female house sparrow. I used another paper called Fluid, 140 pound, cold press. Its softer than Arches and the grain is a little finer.  I have used this block only once before on another bird, I like it!

I used my Windsor & Newton watercolor pan, ultramarine blue, burnt umber, burnt sienna, raw sienna, and a little ivory black for the eye. I messed up the reflection on the eye so I used a little blotch of white gouache to recover.

This bird will be matted and framed and hung at The Belle, Jenny MacLeod's shop near our house.

Burro #1

Burro #1

Watercolor, 2012

9" x 12"

This is not a bird. I painted this from a photograph by Rafa Montero. He was kind enough to let me use a great picture from Egypt. His photo had two burros on the top of a rise, I only used one burro and added some southwest cacti to make it look more like Mexico.

I took a lot of time on the drawing and transferred it using Jana's newly returned light box.

I painted this piece over two weekends, starting with the background, a wash of Yellow Ochre and Ultramarine Blue (Windsor Newton).  The cacti color is Olive Green from a da Vinchi tube, and the rocks were a combination of Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna and Ultramarine Blue (Windsor Newton from a pan) with a lot of scrubbing in the shadows.

I liked the idea that burro is in a strange place, looking back from where it came or perhaps starting on a descent into a canyon.  I stopped short on adding any more color to the head only because I didn't want to lose the quality of the expression, if donkeys have expressions, and decided not to push my luck.  I think of this painting as an illustration, which is the way I think of the birds in flight I've been doing of late. The drawing was one of  my favorites and the painting also makes me happy. I hope the owner enjoys it too.

Honeybee

Honeybee

Watercolor, 2012
10" x 18"
Gift (TB)

I wanted to try another bird that wasn't simply staring off into space so I decided to paint this Eastern Bluebird in mid-flight, turning its head to notice a honeybee.

The fun part about painting this was the bee.  I took some pictures in the garden, compared them to some online sites and came up with the idea of a bee that looked like it was barely lifting into the air. I tried several drawings and came up with this design. I had the bee flying the same direction as the bird at first but decided it would be more interesting if they were crossing paths.

I added a hint of the feet on the blue bird. I enjoy these bird paintings when they have full legs showing but it was impossible with the shape of the wings.

This bird is Cobalt and Ultramarine Blue and the reddish highlights are Magenta.  The honeybee is Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber, all from my Windsor Newton pan.