April Flight - bird soft sculpture

Surrounded by lovely birds in these parts, I seem to have become addicted to sketching them, and making little models based on the little chaps that hop about the garden. Thank you Mr Crazyhound for taking this lovely photo. The real things - they wake us up at the moment as they chirp as soon as the sun is up. Once again this little bird was inspired by Abby Glassenberg's designs that give such a good base for your own designs. 

I am off from these parts for a few weeks, heading south, me and the dogs and our trusty (or is that rusty??) old car hoping to get inspiration from the markets, villages and country of France and England.  I am looking forward to getting my paints and pencils out and doing something different. At the moment I am rediscovering the work of someone who inspired me before - Philippe Charles-Jacquet . An artist inspired by boats and the sea, and magical landscapes - and he uses paints that you find in your local DIY store to achieve some wonderful effects.        

Tweet Tweet - Inspiration from the birds

Some people say in an off hand way to dismiss something " Aw ! That's for the birds !" meaning something stupid. Well, this week I have been inspired by all things birdie and thing them the most resourceful of animals.
I am not sure what has happened with the local bird food chain, but this year we have hundreds and hundreds of sparrows, chirping and cheeping all over the place. So many in fact that our lilac tree was covered...

Zoom in  and you will see just how many are perching in that tree. So many in fact, that about 20 choose to dive down the woodburner chimney into the living room before exiting stage left into the garden. The old cat thought it was Christmas, but is thankfully too old and blind to catch any. I am now a dab hand at closing all blinds quickly to black out confusing light and open the garden door, before opening the glass stove door to allow the adventurous chap/chapette to fly out to safety.   

    And this led me to look into bird scultpures, and get inspired by Ann Wood in New York and Abigail Brown in London, and getting guidance from "The Artful Bird" by Abigail Patner Glassenberg.... Ta dar.... Here is my little tweeter. I am particularly pleased with his legs.