July 9, 2022
A good ten years ago I had the good fortune to spend 3 years in Bermuda, when my husband was temporarily employed on that beautiful archipel of islands in the Atlantic Ocean. During my stay, I became a part of a small art group and had a lot of fun playing around with (mainly) watercolours.
Now fast forward ten years – last week we had a small reunion with members of that group, who have moved back to Canada, their native country. We set up our gear in a beautiful garden, to do some fun outdoor painting. Granted, we did a lot of chatting as well, that was part of the fun of course!
I don’t do a lot of watercolours anymore, so it was a brilliant opportunity to take my ‘portable’ easel for a trip. It had been stationary in my basement studio for a couple of years, being used as a stand for reference materials and a holding space for my palettes and paints. It was not too bad to set up, but the lesson for future outings is to forget about storing the paints in it. They just get in the way when you need to fold everything up in preparation of travel. Otherwise, I was quite happy with it.
Below is the piece I worked on during this plein-air session. I only just finished it and it is part of a series of small panels (8:10 inch) I am dedicating to songbird and other feathered friends. When I lived in The States, after Bermuda, our rental home was on a fabulous 1-acre property where I took many, many photographs of the birds visiting our feeders. This one, however, was found online. I love the vivid colours, it breathes summer!
Bird minis series
I started to paint birds for a bit of relaxation and fun. Just on small panels, enjoying the colours and remembering the scenes. I have a little aviary now 🙂
