Scarlet Robin and Blueberry Ash – Watercolour – 15x15cms – SOLD
Now for a little change of pace, stepping in to my next 15x15cm small bird painting study with ‘Scarlet Robin and Blueberry Ash’. Of course I have always been a fan of the Blueberry Ash! How could I ever choose its favourite state to work with? Its cascades of frilly, delicate pink flowers? Its clusters of brilliant blue berries that give this plant its ever so suitable name? I really couldnt say… So for this sweet little painting I will be capturing both, another glorious aspect of this beautiful plant with its flowers and fruit on show all at once.
The bird inspiration comes with thanks to a photographer I always enjoy collaborating with and have done for some years now, Peter Humphries. Thank you Peter 🙏🏻 In this shot of the Robin, she has such a delicate pink flush to her feathers. It sneaks across her scarlet belly so softly, highlighting her grey head feathers as well. You know how I love to play with colour, relationships of colour, complexity of colour and so this felt like a truly beautiful and harmonious match to me. With the Blueberry Ash in full flower around me here at home, the time felt right too. I love how these miniature paintings allow me to move with the season, week to week capturing what captures me!
My work is never simple, never easy to render, and this painting is no exception. In some ways the background seems simpler than some that have come previously, but rich, realistic, soft focus in watercolour is both technically challenging and time consuming. This Blueberry Ash surround has a lot of soft focus, all amongst the feathery frills of the flowers. Yep. Itll be a challenge for sure. Hopefully though, Ill achieve a beautiful delicate painting for my efforts in the end. Im feeling confident and so its time to jump in to a new subject, a new story, a new challenge. Here we begin with the drawing, my plan forwards in graphite.
A sweet little Scarlet Robin comes to life. I love the slatey purple greys in the head and the fine textures and colours of the belly feathers, hard as they are to paint! Such a sweet, striking ball of fluff they are 🧡❤️🧡
I have been working steadily on the blueberry ash background for this painting, reaching somewhere around the mid way point today, not accounting for the leaves and branch details. There is a lot of challenging soft focus to this piece as I mentioned. Its always slow going but a beautiful romance of colour and a process that with surrender, becomes a mediative state… Unless you’re asking my hands.Its an interesting mix of colours in this painting, soft and fresh, quite unique and definitely beautiful. So here is a mid way update of the background. Its coming along fine and will take even more shape with tomorrows studio day.
The final step of this painting is now complete having illustrated the remaining background, leaves and berries
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‘Scarlet Robin and Blueberry Ash’ is now SOLD. Let me know if youre interested in this series 🙏🏻