Hummingbird at a feeder

Part of a watercolour painting

Again, I have Patty and Wayne to thank for the excellent bird reference photos. This feeder and basket of flowers is near a window of their home so they were able to photograph the birds without scaring them away. This watercolour painting is a part of the 'Bullocks Oriole' painting. Note the March 23 blog post.

'Teach a student, learn twice' was a saying I saw today and it is so true. Rarely do I use misket to save white areas but in this painting I did, as I was teaching some students techniques in watercolour and we were experimenting with resists.  I generally am attracted to soft edges in a painting, but here I rather like the hard edges left after removing the misket. The organic shapes of the white flowers keeps the hard edges from becoming too distracting and the swoop of the white stems directs the eye up to the little 'hummer'. 

It's spring and the spring bulbs are popping up - a delight for the eye after the lack of blossoms in the winter. I hope you will let them inspire you!