Spiro

Still Not A Toucan Or Blue Heron

Yes, still not the toucan or blue heron I have been threatening to paint. Spiro is meant to be a starling and went through major changes before I finished him yesterday. First of all, he’s smaller than the last ten birds I’ve painted as I returned to the size I was working with last fall. He’s on a new Arches hot press watercolor block that is ultra-smooth and suitable for drawing, which I’m thinking about doing more of. I also got a second block which is cold press and textured. It has the beginning of a golden eagle on it. Once the eagle is done, hopefully in time to show it to you next week, I should be ready to get back to the larger size and finally paint that toucan. 

But back to Spiro, whose eye drove me nuts. Can you tell? I liked the beak and the lavender background, and underneath that layer of feathers are several more layers of multiple colors but that eye refused to come alive. I originally wanted to call him Darling to rhyme with starling, but as he looked less and less like one and the eye got more crazy, Darling no longer fit. Spiro, with his Easter egg colors and lethal beak, did though. The eagle is pretty scary at this point too, I must be having a difficult week. 

Next up, as the bird series for my September show winds down, will be collage. Have I talked about collage yet? I did a bunch of them during the early days of CoVid, most of the really good ones have sold, but I just ordered giclee proofs of three of them with the intention of touching them up and doing limited editions of the results. It’s a nice distraction, although the collages do all have birds in them. Some even feature birds I painted. Maybe a toucan will end up in one of them soon.