Day 40

Baby Lily Trotter

(4x5", Oil) Price: $85.00   SOLD

Awww...ain't he cute? This is a baby Lotusbird and is an Australian native bird. Colloquially, he's a 'Lily Trotter'. Sounds Victorian, doesn't it? Anyway, I needed to paint something for this week that I could actually photograph and post. I did another painting, but because it resembles the 'Moon Fantasy' piece from a few days ago, it's been difficult to capture in digital. I'll have to wait until it drys well and try and scan it.

Meanwhile, this little birdie caught my eye this morning and inspiration struck, so I painted him in all of his fuzzy glory. Those elegant extra-long toes were fascinating to detail in overly wet oil paint. When he gets older, he'll grow into them, more or less, and he'll happily skitter across many lily pads. I placed the half open Lily flower behind him to give an idea of how little he is, and give an homage to what his life's pursuit will be.

The palette for this one is the same for yesterday, however, I added some Permanent Rose for the flower, and exchanged the Cadmium Yellow Light for Cadmium Lemon. The Cadmium Lemon makes a really nice fresh green with the Cobalt Blue. Brushes were: 1/2" Flat, and a Size 4 Filbert. I did a bit of blending with a soft fluffy round brush.

The reason I've had time to do this today, is that there's a blizzard raging outside as I write this. We've been getting ready for a convention all week, and were supposed to have been on the road to Rye, NY first thing this morning. However, the weather had other ideas, and we'll leave tomorrow morning instead. Hmmm. Think I might go paint something else...

See you tomorrow,
Marianne