Watercolour, on 300gsm ARCHES Hot pressed paper.

This cherished little guy came about when a good friend suggested I paint him, after painting ‘Magpie’ for mum

I got to it the very next day. With a couple of charcoal sketches to warm up, seated under the caravan annexe at my little ‘secretaire’. My gold laced Wyandotte chickens at my feet, this guy was given flight in watercolour.

I enjoyed more than anticipated achieving the mellow yellow/brown washes for the background. As well as mixing the blue black I wanted. I mostly mix my own black pigments, which gives a natural depth of ‘colour’, and so enjoyable for me.

The male Superb Fairy wren has all the colourful blue and obviously why he is referred to as the ‘Blue Fairy Wren’. So now I will think I will have to paint his mate. She is referred to as plain, some say ‘Plain Jane’. Her more tan brown body has but a hint of blue in her tail that to me can be almost teal in the sunlight. Interestingly, when you look closely at the female Superb Fairy Wren, she has  an exquisite amber/orange area near her eye and beak, which I love. She is sweetly unique too, her little tiny eyes encircled with a glow. akin to a halo.

Here on my patch, a regeneration of one bare acre called for many plantings. Choosing trees and importantly many small shrubs. Including 40 native edibles known as Finger Lime, or Gullalung. Especially to create the shelter needed for the tiniest like these superb wrens. An Australian Native bush food, the Gullalung are a fruity thorny treasure themselves, known for their miniature citrus fruits some refer to as ‘citrus caviar’. Their blossoms even tinier.

This painting brought me a lot of joy completing.

PS: Scarlet Robins have arrived into the young Finger Lime orchard also, another lovely one to paint!