Cardinal

Cardinal1

A friend of mine posted a photo of a cardinal on FaceBook a couple of days ago and it reminded me of how much I love these little ladies.

This little painting was a particular challenge because of the softness of the lines, the subtlety of the tones and hues. This googled image was suitable and I decided to do a tiny, card-sized, painting on a scrap of Saunders Waterford paper to use as a card for my grandsons who are moving into a new home next week. Ridgley is a young bird watcher. I plan to get him a platform bird feeder for his bedroom window. And I hope that this little painting will hang on the wall beside that window – along with a few more. When I asked him yesterday what his favorite bird was, he said “woodpecker” and when I asked him what kind, he said “African.” I’d never heard of and African Woodpecker, but I have learned never to doubt my little Wild Kratts aficionado when it comes to animals. So, I googled it and sure enough:

*List of birds of Zambia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org1063 × 1489Search by image

The golden-tailed woodpecker (Campethera abingoni) lives throughout central and southern Africa.

So this one will be next!

I mentioned earlier that I did this little painting on a scrap of Saunders Waterford paper. It was my first experience with this paper as I had decided to give it a try. It’s supposed to be tougher than Arches – it’s not. I’m not sure I like it. It’s very different. I think it would be good for some projects. It seems to be more absorbent, so pigment does not travel as easily, making it good for dry brush, but not for blending on paper and working wet in wet. I’m working on a larger painting of my oldest grandson on this paper . . . we’ll see.