Joys of Water

But not in whisky, I refer to watercolour of course, I have recently started a series of watercolour studies of songbirds and I must say I am really enjoying a sense of deja vue as I spent many years painting exclusively in watercolours. I wanted to paint the birds I see daily at the feeders and the intention was to paint in a more expressive and looser style. There were two reasons for this; firstly I felt I needed a change from highly detailed paintings which take days to complete and secondly there is a charm to the more simple rendering that watercolours encourage. I usually begin an acrylic painting by completing a sketch in watercolours and my wife often prefers them to the finished acrylic, now over the years I have learned to never dismiss her views; particularly her thoughts on my work. When I complete my series of songbird studies I will add a watercolour section to my web site and visitors to the site can judge whether my wife was right yet again. I have included below two of the most common and charming of garden visitors, the Blue Tit and the Great Tit.