A new painting

 During the summer I work on commissions. I find it a good time before I start painting for my winter shows.

 

Here is the start of one.

  Yellow-headed blackbirds are one of the more striking birds we have here in the Pacific Northwest. It is always a treat to see them around our lakes and streams during the nesting season.

 

  This may look like a simple composition. In many ways it is. A loose background, a hint of near-ish cattails and grasses in the lower left, and the foreground grasses and cattails.

  However, it is the placement of each cattail and grass blade which is important. Making this a vertical painting is helping to further the story of the long cattails and also illustrates a common position the yellow-headed blackbird takes when singing.