Eastern Spinebill and Kangaroo Paw Painting

Eastern Spinebill and Kangaroo Paw Painting – Watercolour – Approx 25x17cms – Currently Available

New to my drawing board this week is an Eastern Spinebill and Kangaroo Paw painting, bold reds combined with delicious slate greys and rich copper tones of the spinebill set to create a powerful yet elegant rendering of these two stunning Aussie subjects. Again, it will continue in the current line of the classic natural history illustration style featuring an exquisitely rendered subject on a clean white background.

The inspiration for this study draws on Phillip Starts beautiful series of small Australian birds frolicking amongst the kangaroo paw images, such a vibrant, delightful visual feast for the senses its quite overwhelming. Many times Ive found myself lost in the kangaroo paw patches myself so these images really captured my interest with ease. In this case Ive redrawn the finished painting from several reference points to complete the final layout, a relatively simple study in appearance with a rich criss crossing of colour, texture and fabulous form of the flowers with the steadiness of the bird bringing such gravity to the sprawling surrounds… as well as a beautiful diagonal to the composition. Certainly its not simple to paint, so itll be another week of steady going for me to achieve the level of finish and outcome I intend.

First up of course, we have the drawing. Challenging from the start with its undefined edges, curious form and furry edges… the drawing is always a quick measure of how challenging it will be to paint the subject. Kangaroo Paw is a notoriously challenging subject but lets get into it and see shall we!

artist_heidi willis_kangaroo paw_eastern spinebill painting_watercolour_bird painting

The graphite drawing is complete

Eastern Spinebill and Kangaroo Paw is now complete, as beautiful palette and colours to work with as I imagined 🙂

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My Eastern Spinebill and Kangaroo Paw painting is currently available so please let me know if youd like to add this elegant original to your collection. Thanks for following

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