Bird feeder action!

The new bird feeder outside our window amuses me by attracting house sparrows and chickadees. Hopefully more varieties of bird will visit as the bird-word spreads. As a bonus, our cat slides all over Josh’s piles of books and papers trying to get a better look at his would-be prey. This is sort of how he looks and sounds, so I get entertained once by the birds and again by the cat! Talk about getting your money’s worth!

Phew!

All of a sudden, so much time has passed since my last post! I must admit, I was feeling pretty doom and gloom last week. Between the grim budget delivered by the Vancouver School Board and the inevitable low-points of making art, some poisonous post was probably best avoided anyhow.

Instead, I’m finally feeling game for sharing a new painting. I’ve been increasingly interested in local birds. I received a bird book last year and have really enjoyed putting a name to the birds I see and hear. Josh also brought home a bird feeder, so there’s been some amusing activity right outside our window. While wandering around our local library branch, I picked up the book Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds, by Trevor Herriot. Although the birds he describes are specific to a different, and dwindling, landscape, his enthusiasm for each bird as a representative of the spirit of the land is contagious.

So, yeah, I’m interested in birds. Enough blah, blah, blah. Here’s the painting…

It’s 30 x 30″ and I haven’t titled it yet. I’ve been interested in the depth and texture achieved through acrylic mediums and glazes, so the background gave me a chance to explore some interesting techniques. As I learn more about local birds, it was inevitable that I would begin to learn more about how human activity threatens many species. Among other things, I was thinking about the increasing toxicity of a bird’s environment. And so, the acid colours against the neutral and natural tones of the bird and it’s home.