Cape white-eyes

Cape white-eyes (Zosterops virens). Acrylics on Masonite, 15 x 20 cm.

These are the archetypal tweety birds: round and fluffy and cute looking. They're quite common around here, where they move in small groups through dense foliage, looking for insects and chattering to one another.

Lemon, spice, dandelion

Acrylics on Masonite, 15 x 20 cm:

Two irises

Acrylics on Masonite, 25 x 20 cm:

Wisteria cottage

Acrylic on board, 20 x 25 cm:

Tuscan window

Oil on board, 20 x 25 cm:

When it comes to painting outdoors subjects, I seem to prefer this sort of intimate scene rather than grand vistas. Not even sure what one should call this: landscape or still life? No idea, but it is what it is.

Ceramic and egg

Oil on board, 20 x 15 cm (= about 8 x 6 in).
Painted with a limited palette of ocher yellow, ocher red, black and white. Using such a limited range of colors makes for an interesting challenge, particularly if you try to paint green or blue things; I cheated a bit here by picking subjects with colors that could be fairly easily approximated with what I had available.

Some random sketches

I have been taking a break from painting in order to study up on some aspects of art that have always eluded me. How long I'll be busy with that, I don't know, but I'll post the occasional sketch here just to keep the blog alive.

Two still life sketches done from life:

And two in ballpoint pen plus colored pencil, cobbled together from various reference photos:

I have actually been itching to take up the brushes again, so perhaps I'll soon succumb to temptation and paint something...