Time flies when you are busy and having fun. I cannot believe that we are halfway through February already. All of our things from Shanghai came about 2 weeks ago, and I have been enjoying unpacking and organizing everything. I also bought a used computer desk that we have stripped of all the old paint and painted again. And then this weekend we found a mat to cover my studio floor, so yesterday I have been able to start organizing my studio. I will not hurry. Instead, I will take some time and start painting already in the chaos to see where everything should go.
Sometime during last week while I was too busy unpacking to do much on my social media platforms, I hit 1000 subscribers on youtube, and 500 subscribers on Instagram! To celebrate, I decided to do my first ever give away. I started to paint and film last week, so my first giveaway video for Youtube should be up on my channel tomorrow, and then I will do the giveaway announcement on Instagram after that. I decided to do some miniature watercolour paintings, and I will be giving away 10 small watercolours on my Youtube channel, and 5 on Instagram. So keep a lookout for those posts!
Here are three of the miniature watercolour paintings for the giveaway that are finished. They are about 8,5 x 8,5 cm.
I got inspired to do these small paintings by my new reference material that I have been able to gather here in New Zealand. New Zealand really is a birder and a painters heaven. There are maybe not that many species of birds here compared to other countries, but there are a lot of them. You hear bird song every day, all day. They fly and flutter everywhere, and come and visit you in the garden. And if you go at the right time down to the river, you have perfect photo opportunities. Below are a few of my favourite shots that I have been able to get so far during low tide down by the river:
Spoonbill. It is the first time ever that I have seen spoonbills.
They were not much bothered by me at all, so I was able to walk quite close to them.
Sacred Kingfisher. This was the bird that I was actually looking for when going out with my camera. I had seen it hunt at the same place a couple of times, and was lucky that it was hunting in the same place again when I had my camera with me. Look at those colours!
It was low tide, and he found and caught many many small apparently tasty crabs.
Pied Stilt. This is a weird but very elegant looking bird. I enjoyed watching them through my lens. Quite shy, so I was not able to get very close.
Seagull on the lookout. He kept a very stern eye on me the whole time I was out on the river bank. He is a southern black-backed gull.
That was me for this week. I wish you all a wonderful week ahead!