A watercolour painting of a nuthatch

The nuthatch

A watercolour painting of a nuthatch

My latest print is of the humble British bird, the Nuthatch. It's not a bird I've seen in real life yet, but a local wildlife photographer snapped it in Cardiff. I thought it was such a beautiful image, I just had to paint it.

This painting has made me take a moment and appreciate how far my bird art has come along in the last two years. The more I look at birds, the more colours I see, more colours and more tonal value (the contrast between light and dark). Getting the tonal value right, adds depth to the painting and stops it appearing flat. 

Have I found my style yet? I don't think so, but painting by painting I'm getting closer to something that is starting to resemble being recognisable as mine. There are still lots of areas I need to keep working on to improve, and I know what those areas are, but painting by painting I'm seeing growth and improvement, and that warms my soul.

Of all the bird paintings I've done, and there's quite a lot, this is my favourite to date. I still haven't decided if I'm going to sell the original.

This will be printed on new and ever so beautiful paper by Hahnemühle - their Torchon 285 textured paper. It's the fanciest paper I've printed on, but it elevates the print to being a far superior quality. Very soon all my watercolour prints will be printed on this paper instead of the matt Epson paper.

What do you think of the nuthatch? Have you spotted one in real life yet?

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