Acrylic  palette knife, a dash of oil pastelle on canvas.

December 2022, at my sisters home, by The Macintrye River in Goondiwindi, Queensland.

Several painting's on the go at once, I was all spread out in my sisters huge family room. As many of you already know my usual studio home is tiny. This  peaceful Dove was an 'end of session painting', the palette knife gave him a very lustrous 'plume', deserved of such a lovely little dove. Perched and peaceful. It is an example also of me being very relaxed and in the moment, painting quickly and expressively.

This fella came about when I casually picked up a small canvas sitting nearby my major work for the day 'Peace Dove'.

I had undercoated it with leftover orange paint so as not to waste it. I began an exercise of imprinting, choosing the bird shape to strengthen muscle memory of my brain. Chalking out the bird sketch onto the canvas I was happy with my sketch.

Before I knew it, this sweet dove flew in and perched right on the orange canvas, with my palette knife delivering it via some lustrous acrylic full bodied paint.

Giving her a little fence post was all that was needed and voila!

Sometimes it doesn't go quite so nicely and these exercises are painted over, however other times like this instance it becomes a loved creation and flies of to a new collectors home.

I seemed to have a bit of an 'orange' period last year and this was my pick of them. Full of fluffy feathery, texture and contrasts between the burnt orange and blue/purples, to white, complimented with the rustic fence post and a little oil pastel, to produce an aged effect to the timbers.