Bird Days, Days 4 & 5

Why wasn't there an individual post for Day 4? Oh, I shall tell you. When I went to write an entry filling you in on all our activities, the internet was down. Oh, well, I thought, I'll play with Beatrice instead. In the nursery.

We played and sang and talked. Then I overheard a conversation out in the yard and stuck my head out the window to get a better listen. It seems there are no less than 12 pirate cables going out from ours to another building. This, apparently, is why our internet service is so very touch and go.

Later today, service returned.

Now we have quite a collection of birds! James has added a Tufted Titmouse and is headed toward a Tufted "black crested" Titmouse. I've done a Loggerhead Shrike and an Eastern Kingbird. I love my Kingbird with his chest puffed out, fluffy and white.

Bird Days, Day 1

So Lily and I painted our first birds. Lily painted a plump Northern Cardinal while I did a Scarlet Tanager. They both came out much better than either one of us expected. And it was so much fun! I think I finally experienced what Betty Edwards has been talking about in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I don't draw much, and I've never used oil paints before. But as Lily and I were working, I began to notice a strange sensation that I hadn't felt before. The right side of my brain had taken over, and it was intoxicating!

Bird Days

James and I are starting a new series wherein we each paint one bird a day for twenty days. We are painting in oil on wood. On Day 0, we gathered our supplies and prepared our surfaces with gesso (fig 1.A).