A friend recently asked me why I paint 'ugly' birds - I think he was referring to my love of the corvid (crow) family. Apart from the fact that I think they are rather beautiful birds in their splendid plumage - I think I am fascinated by their character. Plus as I have recently started working with gold leaf I've found through trial and error that you need a strong subject that can hold it's own against the gold leaf which can be such an over powering medium. Rooks , magpies and other corvids are wonderful subjects that compliment the gold leaf.
Over the half term hols an old back injury came back to haunt me - so on strict doctors orders not to paint etc - I found myself with some time to go through old sketch books and look for new inspiration for future paintings . I rather liked these bald ibis studies that I sketched a while back . When I'm up and about and back to work I may work on this theme .
