New 6x6 mixed media on cradled wood canvas. Have been using Derwent Inktense pencils to deepen color on my backgrounds. I have had them for years, and, essentially did not like them. Glad I kept them around now. My first show is April 4th, Saturday before Easter Sunday. I prefer to do Spring in non-conventional colors, and lesser known, deeper quotes. Love seeing everyone's work!!

I have been working on some forest ideas, and I have collected some bark. I'm hoping to use the real bark to add some texture on the trees. I'm not sure if it will work, but I'm going to experiment with it. I'm of to Tunisia tomorow, so it may have to wait until I get back. But hopefully the warm weather, meeting up with friends, and the all important Tunisian coffee ☕️ may give me some inspiration. I have my sketch book 📖 ready and packed. 😎

Finaly finished, and siluettes added last night. What are the mermaids thinking or dreaming, looking at the swirling water spout?

You know that delicious thing that happens when you look at a painting of a bird and… it’s clearly a bird, but it looks nothing like a “real” bird? Maybe the body is a funny shape, or the whole thing is stitched, collaged, scribbled and slightly wonky. And yet your brain doesn’t hesitate for a second….it goes, “Ah, bird.” That’s the quiet magic of art. Our minds don’t actually need perfect realism to recognise something. In fact, the less literal the image, the more space there is for you to step in, to feel, imagine, and project your own story onto it. A totally unrealistic bird can be more fascinating than a photographic one because it isn’t just about feathers and anatomy anymore; it becomes about character, mood, emotion. Unnatural colours might make it feel otherworldly, symbolic, or deeply personal. When we move away from realism, we’re not failing at art, we’re inviting a different kind of truth. A truth about how something feels rather than how it looks. That strange little bird on the page starts to hold all sorts of things: freedom, fragility, hope, curiosity, grief, joy. It becomes a mirror for whatever the viewer is carrying. So yes, you can paint a bird that would make no sense in a biology book, and still have it land straight in someone’s heart. Sometimes the wonky, impossible bird is the one that feels most alive. 🦅

Six days down and 94 to go! Just having some fun on Day 6 with mixed media art journaling around a theme of the impact of simple joys on the quality of our lives. Day 6 of the 100 day Project. I love to hear the birds chipping as the sun rises, and it truly is a wild and wonderful thing.