Adventures in Brush Painting

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Chinese brush painting of goldfinches and blackbird on rice paper

Goldfinch Practice

I painted the goldfinches first, then this big, noisy blackbird had to get into the picture! I find gestural, spontaneous painting is often like this: I start off minding my P's and Q's and then something rowdy jumps out of the brush.
​In the next painting, it was the other way round: Old Loudmouth made his appearance first and I tried to match his energy with a flying bird in the upper right quadrant.  That bird didn't work, so the splashing ink became autumn leaves. Perhaps you can still see a beak and eye peering out up there. Or perhaps some wings and a tail...
Chinese brush painting of a bird on a branch with autumn leaves

Old Loudmouth

You can see more of my bird practice sheets here. Got questions? Let me know!
2 Comments
diptasree sen - 9 years ago
Wonderful paintings. And very helpful for us who want to learn Chinese brush painting !
Virginia Lloyd-Davies - 9 years ago
So glad to hear my blog is helpful. Please do recommend it to your friends!