Remember that bird painting challenge I'm working on?

...apparently I forgot about it, but I'm back on track with paintbrush in hand. It seems lately I've done everything but paint birds. We were on vacation on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for two weeks, and that was wonderful. I visited Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge a lot and have tons of photos. The rookery was a lot different this year compared to last year, and I saw a few new birds there this year too. My poor Cincinnati birds are going to feel left out because I'll probably go straight from posting Florida birds to South Carolina birds...

Before I get to the photos, here are my catching-up-to-the-challenge paintings. They are very fast sketches, and I think I had better get used to painting fast if I want to have any hope of making 100 in a year. I should be a bit beyond 50 now, but I'm only at 37!

Painting 37 - Eastern Towhee

Painting 36 - Eastern Towhee in Orange

This one was fun. I just wanted to create a flat form

with color. I normally pay attention to detail, but I wanted

to leave that style behind for a while...

Painting 35 - Willet in the Gulf

Painting 34 - Eastern Kingbird in the High Meadow

(From the High Meadow at Voice of America Park)

Painting 33 - Prothonotary Warbler painting study

This was a five-minute value study for an earlier painting. After I figured out how to work out the real painting, I tossed this on the floor and forgot about it. A couple of days later I saw it on the floor and picked it up and scribbled over the top of it with pastels and charcoal, really grinding the pigment into the paper. Then I stuck it under the faucet and doused it with water, washing a lot of the pigment off and soaking the paper completely--I have no idea why. It ended with an old-fashioned fabric feel that I liked, so I decided to use it in the challenge.