Melody of the skies

    In much of Austria the countryside is buried in unusual amounts of snow. The past couple of months have seen intervention by the military to relieve accumulated snow which had become dangerously heavy to roofs, as well as multiple avalanches, closed passes and, at worst, closed valleys. Here in Graz the temperatures have been cold and we have had our grey days and lighter, normal, snow but the sun has returned bringing with it, for the first time today, the feeling that Spring might indeed come at some point. With this gentler light, a bouyancy has come into the steps of the commuters and the birds can be heard and seen everywhere.

   In mid-autumn I made a round of second-hand shops on the look out for picture frames. Although completely unsucessful in terms of frames I found a large stack of sheet music and bought two sheafs. I have been intending to sit down and paint on them since then but schedules being what they are I only started on Sunday. The idea is to create a set of images entitled, 'Melody of the Skies' featuringing some of the birds I like and perhaps later adding on a second series, 'Melody of the Deep' in which I would paint deep sea creatures such as squid, octopi, fish and jelly fish. I have not yet decided whether I will make them available as prints or only as originals yet. If any of you have an opinion, I would love to hear it.

   This sunnier weather we have been enjoying will not lead us directly into spring, of course, but it has provided exactly the right atmosphere for painting the birds. I have been fortunate enough to get permission from Nick Parayko Images to use some of his wonderful photos as references. He photographs the wildlife in and around Jasper National park, as well as other places in Alberta, Canada, and is always posting new and beautiful close-ups. His owl and fox pictures are really nice!

 These are not intended to be scientific, It has been my intention to keep them loosely painted and more on the artistic that realistic end of the painting spectrum. I hope you enjoy them.

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