I photographed these two magpies from the kitchen window earlier this year when there was a lot of snow. At first I rendered them as they were, surrounded by white snow. Afterwards I felt the the background was rather boring and nondescript. So I started letting a blade of grass or two peep through the snow in places. Then I went on and on painting grass, blade after blade, day after day. Different shades of green, yellow and blue were added. On and on I went, almost like the sorcerers apprentice. Painting shadows between grass straws, lightening up, toning down, overlapping in places and finally adding the taller grass and twigs in the foreground.
In the meantime the snow has slowly vanished from the garden, the days are longer and spring is almost here. The magpies have moved up into the pear tree where they're building a nest. I'd like to paint that too but it's way out of reach, they know what they're doing so I'll leave them alone now.
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| Magpies acrylics on canvas 35 x 110 cm © Elizabeth Tyler 2013 |
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