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Monday 21 January 2013

Back to painting birds


Fieldfare 
© Sharon Whitley

Continuing with the theme of painting the garden birds, I was inspired to paint a fieldfare today as I've been watching a flock of them at the bottom of next door's garden all day - and even though I tried to tempt them into my garden by putting out halved apples, they didn't come in, but it was lovely to see them anyway - gorgeous birds.  The garden birds have become quite scarce since next door cut his trees back and I really miss seeing them.  Any ideas how to entice them back would be much appreciated - I'm planning on planting a couple of trees soon so that should help.  I do feel sorry for the birds during this particularly cold spell - if you don't already please put out some food for them to help them along! 



Another painting I did this evening was the lovely rook which have a beautiful purple and blue sheen to them when the light hits them in a certain way - thanks to Richard Steel for allowing me to use his beautiful photo - his wonderful blog can be found here.  He really captures the beautifully subtle colours of some often overlooked birds like the rook, jackdaw, magpie and starling and has some gorgeous in flight bird shots.

Rook
© Sharon Whitley

Next on the easel is a tiger!!!

Managed to get out walking in the mountains yesterday - we drove to Aber and climbed a mountain called Drosgl - it was bitterly cold up there but great to be out and we saw a few of our favourite Carneddau ponies in the winter coats.

I'm posting a couple of pics for you here but there will soon be more on the other blog Two Pairs of Boots.


The partly frozen Aber Falls, impressive as always


These gorgeous Welsh Mountain ponies are so hardy!

It felt like arctic conditions on the top of Drosgl!

It's snowing again tonight and hoping the snow sticks around for next week's walk but a bit less wind would be nice - it was sooo cold!

12 comments:

  1. Great job on your bird paintings, I especially like the Rook.

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  2. Your rook is lovely, Sharon. You really have done a beautiful job with those subtle blues and violets.

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  3. Lovely images, both paintings and photographs. The rook shows some beautiful control of pigment and the quality of your drawing is great.

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  4. Your paintings are gorgeous, Sharon. Those Welsh ponies are stunning and I thank you for bringing them to light. I'd not seen them before.

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  5. Two super paintings Sharon, the Rook is a beauty.
    That's a great picture of the falls, you can just feel the cold!...[;o)

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  6. 'The Bird Painter'....sounds good to me, in fact I love the sound of it, two excellent examples here.

    Life can't be a bundle of fun for the Carneddau Ponies in these conditions can it. Another brilliant image from 'Gary The Great', but don't tell him I called him that will you Sharon.

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  7. Great paintings and photographs Sharon! I've never seen a welsh pony, thanks for sharing.

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  8. Lovely paintings, especially the Rook! All these photos are so inspiring!

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  9. 2 lovely paintings and great pictures too. I saw some of them on 2 pairs of boots. I have sent you an email regarding an important forthcoming event !!

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  10. I always enjoy visiting your blog and seeing all the wonderful pictures that you post! SO inspirational. Your bird paintings are fantastic...I love the first one...so many details on this bird! Excellent.

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  11. Great paintings as always Sharon. That Rook is awesome ... such rich colours. And thank you for featuring a couple of my photos on PMP. Much appreciated.

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  12. Love the Rook and the photos really are beautiful. Always a pleasure to visit your blog.

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I love hearing from you, thank you so much for leaving a comment - I will always try to leave a reply and pop over to visit your blog if you have one - although sometimes I may be slower than others, have a wonderful day xx