Thursday 4 January 2018

Winter Birds.

After recent heavy falls of snow leading up to Christmas I managed to find and sketch some of our winter visitors on my local patch and further afield! I particularly like the winter thrushes that congregate wherever there are berries or fruit and which make such colourful subjects to paint. Redwings are a favourite and I was lucky enough to encounter a small flock of these not far from where I live. It was a bitterly cold day and a blizzard was laying a thick coating of snow among the branches of some Crab Apple trees laden with ripe fruit! The birds where far too preoccupied to notice me and so it enabled me to get very close as to almost touch them. I persevered as long as I could despite frozen fingers and unbearable cold until I could stand it no longer and had to retire! I took enough information home with me so that I could work some sketches into paintings later at home. These are the results!
Redwing and Crab Apples.

Redwing among winter fruit.

Winter Lapwing pair.

Winter Lapwing.

Winter Woody.

Magpies in a blizzard.