PEONY BUD

 

Most of the peonies around here have finished blooming now but a month or so ago, I started a series of paintings of some the flowers I found - this one is the first that I did. There are two large peony plants nearby that I could take a short walk to and observe on a day-to-day basis, one a pale vanilla color with a few deep purplish-red highlights, the other one slightly darker with more red. Others further away in plantings along the river were a solid dark red and didn't attract me like the lighter ones did. I think this goes back to the peonies we had in our old home that produced beautiful large creamy flower heads the size of my palm, some with a few deep rose-red stamens. I really do miss those and wish I could have taken them with us when we left! I kept the paintings mostly small to start with, although the completely opened flowers were done on larger panels. This one is 7 x 5 in (18 x 13 cm), oil on board.

RECENT BIRD STUDIES

 

A while ago, I posted a page from my sketchbook featuring some House sparrow studies, the bottom one still in pencil. I did plan on finishing and re-posting the page but only recently got around to completing that one. I did enjoy painting these smaller birds and whenever I wanted to get any more information from them such as leg color or how much black had come through on the breast of the males, I simply had to walk downstairs and find one of the many living around the property. At this time, there are some young sparrows around too that hatched only a few weeks ago - and looking very cute!

I saw this Great Blue Heron as it passed overhead and began flying away from me. I remember the large dark wings against the sky and how its slow but powerful wing strokes quickly took the bird out of sight. Earlier in spring, I stood outside near the river watching the sky and looking for any signs of migration. A few large flocks of Snow Geese had passed overhead earlier and then came two Great Blues. They were quite close together but didn't form up as other birds of the same species usually do. Both heading north and flew right over the city! I would have expected that they would have kept to the many waterways around here. Another day, a loose flock of 7 Great Egrets passed by along with more flocks of geese. One small group of Canada Geese had a lone cormorant attached to it!

Both these watercolor studies are about 4 x 5 in, (10 x 13 cm).