Inspiration.

Inspiration is a funny thing. Sometimes it's there and sometimes it isn't. It can be gone for weeks or months at a time, and then suddenly appear and stay with you for a long time. I guess that is the nature of inspiration. Not only for artists but for everyone in everyday life as well. At the moment I am enjoying a bout of inspiration, and it is absolutely lovely to come into my studio every day to create. It also helps that I finally have many paintings in different stages on the walls that I am happy with and inspires me to create more.

'Solitary'. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 45x35cm. My first painting in a long time that I have been able to upload to my website. This is Jonathan the seagull. Named after Jonathan Livingston Seagull, after the novel by Richard Bach. If you have not read the book, I can highly recommend it!

I painted this background with a crested tit in mind, but when I turned the canvas upside down to let it dry, I suddenly saw a landscape with flying swans. I imported the background to photoshop and added 3 flying swans to it. This swan is from Pixabay, a reference photo I immediately thought of for this painting. I was lazy, so I just cut and pasted it three times to try out this composition. It works really well I think. I love it when paintings sometimes seem to paint themselves.

These two avocets are almost done, I have painted some more on them, and now I think that just one final layer is needed and they will be done. I want to add a few more details to the feathers, and a few more reflections to the water.

This avocet is also almost done. Just a few more details to the feathers, and I will be happy with it.

That was it for this week. I wish you all a great weekend!