Swallow painting for Brewood Ringers

A few months ago, Ben from Brewood Ringers got in touch with me via this blog to ask whether I would donate a painting to the ringing group, for them to raffle off to raise money for their activities. I was happy to oblige - a nice excuse to do something a bit different from my usual paintings for this blog (sorry about the lack of these lately!). I was given free rein but asked Ben if there were any species in particular that might be particularly relevent to the group; he suggested a few and from those I chose Swallow. I hadn't yet painted anything with similar colouration to a Swallow so was looking forward to working in this pallette; also I hoped that this would be a nice subject for a painting that someone would be happy to win in a raffle - everyone likes Swallows! I painted in my usual medium of watercolours; here's the finished painting:

Swallow watercolour painting.

And here it is in its frame:

Framed Swallow painting.

I delivered the painting to Brewood Ringers at the weekend, at one of their ringing demonstrations at Ashwood Nurseries near Kingstanding. It was great to meet them and catch the end of their demo; I got to release a Greenfinch :o) Afterwards we headed over to nearby Wall Heath to catch up with the Hoopoe that has been there all winter. There were a few birders there and it wasn't long before one of them found the Hoopoe, feeding and bumbling around in some long scrubby grass. This habitat didn't make for the best photos but we enjoyed some nice close views through binoculars; see if you can pick out the Hoopoe in my dreadful record shots below!

Greenfinch.

Me about to release the Greenfinch.

View full size to find the Hoopoe!

View full size to find the Hoopoe!

View full size to find the Hoopoe!

I hope the raffle ticket sales raise lots of money for the group, and that whoever ends up winning my painting likes their prize!