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Another in my city nocturne series. As in the one posted before, this is an evening view looking across the harbor. I was primarily concentrating on creating a certain mood keeping my tones in the background a deep bluish color with the smaller lights used as a kind of musical scale spread across the work with differing intensities. A faint highlight reflecting below the building indicates water and was an important inclusion. Size is 7 x 5 inches, acrylic on board.
At a nearby lake, we were very happy to find a resting Osprey overlooking the water. Probably shouldn't have been that much of a surprise as these birds turn up allover during migration. It sat in a tall dead tree so I was able to get some great views and did this watercolor in my sketchbook.
The bird was still there a few days later although perched a bit further away from the lake and as we were walked by, it flew a little further into the nearby woodland. I did manage another drawing from when I saw it the first time then also did a few in-flight watercolors. All of these studies are about 12 x 9 inches.
Most of winter I have been watching and hearing White-throated Sparrows, usually found with other birds in and around the nearby woodland. Now that spring has arrived, many are passing through heading north and the earliest ones have been splendid males in their sharp breeding plumage. I love hearing their cheery and up-lifting song which sounds like 'Oh Sweet Canada Canada Canada'. I found this male scratching through some fallen leaves. Sometimes they are quite tame and allow you to get close - I managed quite a few quick pencil sketches but this study was done in watercolor. Size is about 6 x 7 inches.
During most of winter, I had been following roving flocks of small birds whenever I have found them. Mostly these flocks consist of tits, nuthatches, woodpeckers and occasionally Brown Creepers. Chickadees seem to feature most of the time and being more easily approachable (especially when feeding or searching for food - which in winter, seems to be almost always!), I can occasionally make a few sketches of them before they move on. Later, I can add to some of the better ones with a few more details from some of my photos. This way, I can hopefully build up a more accurate representation of the species. And this is what I have been trying to do with this study - I think I am almost there although the legs and feet are always a little tricky for me. Size is 12 x 9 inches - watercolor on Grumbacher paper.
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While living in Baltimore and looking across the harbor, I saw many scenes like this one and have managed quite a few small paintings so far. As I work my way through this series, I am re-discovering the delight of painting a subject that I once tackled many years ago while living in St Albans, UK, and also for a short while, in Amsterdam. I would go out with a sketchbook, a small folder of tinted paper, a pack of watercolors and a range of black fine-line pens to draw or paint buildings as the fancy took me. This kind of work was a fine introduction into the art of plein air painting and drawing, which I think has helped me a lot over the years - especially when drawing and painting birds. This small work is 7 x 5 inches, acrylic on gessoed panel.
In this small painting, I wanted to capture the spirit of a cool clear early morning sky before the sunrise. I sat out on the nearby boat dock looking across the almost perfectly calm water to get studies for this one and marveled at the birth of another perfect day. I used acrylic paint here which I am a bit out of practice with - I found it a little difficult to judge the correct tones especially as the paint dries to a lighter tone than when you mix it. Still, I was happy with the finished study. Size is 7 x 5 inches, acrylic on canvas panel.
These quick watercolor sketches of a Great Blue Heron fishing were done from a bird we often see when walking down at a nearby lake. The bird held this pose for a long time but we never saw it catch anything (this time). The water has been a little brown and muddy recently due to runoff from a nearby construction site - this has meant that the heron hasn't always been present. I guess that if it can't see fish in the murky water, it would make catching them very difficult so probably goes elsewhere.
In these series of pencil sketches, I tried to capture the play of light and shadow on this preening bird. This is probably the same bird as the one I painted above since it is usually seen in the exact same places. I'll try to do more sketches in watercolor but using a better quality paper. The top watercolors were done as an experiment on Crelando paper. I found this quite good for quick light sketches but not so good when using heaver washes since it is quite thin and has a delicate surface. Sizes of both of these are about 12 x 9 inches.
