Painting Birds

The more I take the time to paint birds, the more I realize that it is one of my favorite things to do. Turning a white sheet of paper gradually from undifferentiated colors and blobs and squiggles to something that looks somewhat like, and sometimes quite a bit like, a particular bird species is both satisfying and surprising. To some extent it may be like writing a novel (which I have not done), where the characters emerge as the writing happens. Now if there just was a way to earn a real income from it. But not only do paintings not bring that kind of money, but also I can't stand the idea of selling the ones that I like most. It's mostly just a labor of love I guess. I'm attaching copies of my most recent two.