Day 51

Courting Budgies

(6x8", Oil) Price: $120.00

I am getting ambitious!

I found out last week that budgerigars - which are native to Central Australia - are called Parkeets over here in the USA. A bit of confusion for me, I assure you, when confronting a photo of a 'parakeet', I thought "Well, that looks like a budgie, to me."

Anyway, this is a contrived setting in this painting. I found two delightful references for budgies - one male and one female - and placed them together in the framework of some Cherry Blossoms that bloom in our garden every Spring. The painting itself is a bit brighter and clearer than produced here, and I'm quite proud of it. The elements themselves, work well together, although I thought something was missing in the top left hand corner before I finished it. I thought of adding some floating blossom petals behind the birds, but concluded that that would just make the painting look too busy. In the end, I just darkened that corner with some Ultramarine and Yellow, to complete the framework and lead the eye back to the birds.

Palette included: Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine, Cadmium Lemon, Permanent Rose, Transparent Gold Ochre, Titanium White, and a bit of Cobalt Blue. Brushes were: a very raggedy 1/2" Flat, a Size 4 Flat, a Size 8 Round, a Size 4 Filbert, and a very pointy small round one.

See you tomorrow,
Marianne