Sparrows and Avocets.

Greetings from Beihai. (Beihai is a small coastal city in the south of China close to Vietnam) My husband came here on a business trip, and I joined him for a few days. The Chinese new year celebration was fun, and we found some awesome fireworks that we fired on the beach. I say 'found' because it took us a trip outside the city before we found a place to buy some bigger fireworks. Chinese do know how to make fireworks though. What a show we had with only a few big boxes! The video below is a clip from only one of the boxes we had. 

I have my watercolours with me, so I have been painting in the hotel room. That is the beauty with watercolours, you can paint anywhere!

Flowers and woodpeckers in line to be finished.

Eurasian tree sparrows. This was an experiment. The birds would have been better composed a little differently, and I think that the background is a little too dark.

Another attempt at the tree sparrow, and this time both the composition and the background are better balanced.

This is what I was working on before flying south to Beihai. Two avocets. I tinted the canvas with ochre acrylic paint, and then I drew in my two birds. Reference from Pixabay. That is a great site to find reference material by the way!

I liked the placing of the birds, so I painted them with a layer of acrylic colours. I think I might continue with some blue colours when I return to my studio. I also want to lighten up the upper part of the background. The great thing with beginning a new painting with acrylic paint is that you can paint over and start again if you do not like something you tried. And this is very much an experiment!

Tomorrow I will return to Shanghai and my studio. I love travelling, but I also do love returning to my studio! Have a great weekend everyone!