Today has been a good day, not the least because I managed to get down to some serious painting for several hours. The composition I have in mind was planned out pretty carefully, and I had outlined it already on the paper. (This will be another piece in pastel.) All was going pretty smoothly until towards the end of the session I ran into a problem.
An essential part of the design is a magpie. seated on a branch, looking towards the human figure who constitutes the focus of the picture. Of course I know well what they lo0ok like in general terms, but I decided that I needed to make sure that my image was accurate. So I dug out my reference books for birds and turned up two pictures. They were lovely pieces, but in one the bird had its back to the viewer, for some perverse reason, and the other, being in a very dramatic pose, was contorted in such a way that key aspects of its plumage were not shown clearly.*
Magpies are regular visitors to our garden, so I decided that I would just look out of the window for a little while. I might have guessed. There was not a magpie in sight! Blackbirds were there aplenty, together with the usual flock of collar doves. A robin cam a perched right outside the window, and the usual mixture of tits crowded onto the bird feeding station. Sparrows came and went. Gulls flew over the house. Not a single magpie deigned to show itself.
I’ve sketched in the bird lightly, and I’m making what progress I can with a tentative suggestion. Tomorrow morning will be devoted (as usual) to climbing, but I expect to be back to the easel in the afternoon. Let’s hope that news of my needs reaches the magpies by then.
*I would have thought that neither of these provided ideal foundations for recognition, however pleasing they are aesthetically.