Around here lately.

Now is the best time here in Rizhao. The weather is nice and warm (not yet hot! ), it has been sunny and everything is green and feels fresh.

Today we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and the beautiful botanical garden of Rizhao and went for a picnic. I had made the finnish traditional 1 of may mead drink and crispy cookies, so we celebrated Valborg a few days late this year. Of course I forgot to take a picture when we started while there still would have been some light, so I only have this dark picture from just before we left back for home.

From the left is my friend Citte, her mother Helena, my husband's boss John and my husband.

Studio update:

I have so many paintings almost finished, that I did not know where to begin after my holiday in Spain. My solution? Start a new one. Or two, or three… =D  It is always the beginning of a new painting that is the most fun, deciding what kind of bird and what kind of atmosphere I want for the backgrounds… 

To be honest the first new painting that I started was because I got asked to write a step-by-step article for an art magazine's e-newsletter! (While I was going through my bird photos to decide what to paint for the article, I found the perfect matches for two other backgrounds that I had already done earlier.) I decided to paint a Light-vented bulbul for the article, and yesterday I finished the background. Today I started to block in the bird with oil colors. I will not post any pictures of that painting here yet or give any more details, but wait until the article is 'published' and give you a link to it! I'm so exited! It will give me some nice new exposure, and hopefully get many new people to find me and my art!

The two new paintings in progress:

 This is an Azure-winged magpie with the first blocking in of colors. This will be much less detailed than my previous birds, as it is suppose to be late evening light when all colors becomes warmer and the details disappears. I think I will call it 'Evening lookout' or something alike.

Light-vented bulbul. This one has two layers of colors, and will probably get 2 or 3 more before it is finished. I am also trying to decide if the background is a little too light, and if it would need a little more blue or something to get the bird to 'pop' more. The Light-vented bulbul is 3 times bigger than our Great tit back home in Finland, but it reminds me very much of it regarding behavior and character. The male and female also looks the same. In singing it sounds somewhere in between a Chaffinch and a Common blackbird. 

I have already started writing the next blogpost; it will be about my inspirations and why I paint birds. So 'stay tuned' as they often say on the tv!