Stowaway aka Varied Thrush
I had a particular look and feel in mind for the background, so I did several colour sketches before landing on the right scale and colour palette for the leaves. The challenge then, was to find a position for the bird and a balance between subject and background. I want my birds to feel integral with their background/ environment and vice versa, so any opportunity to reveal the underpainting through the body of the bird is a win. In this piece though, I got very caught up in defining its bold markings - they absorbed me like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. There are only one or two small pieces of background visible in the bird’s mantle and belly. I also loved an excuse to block in bold sections of Mars Black on the bird and in the corners of the painting (suggesting other birds and helping to define the leaf shapes.)
Another signature element I like to include is some kind of graphic, abstract shape in contrast to the loose painting of the background. This resolved at the very end and wasn’t at all planned. I had noticed in my reference photo a secondary pattern amongst the leaves, created by thin blades of dried grass, criss-crossing the picture. As a finishing touch, I felt a certain thrill in painting a precise, thin line directly across and in front of the bird (I know, I’m so easily fascinated!)
Finally, just as I was ready to submit the painting to the R.A. it was pointed out that Varied Thrush don’t migrate as far West as the UK. I turned to Google and found there had been a remote sighting in the UK in 1982, which caused a flurry of excitement amongst UK twitchers. Speculation for this rare occurrence was that the bird had come across the Pacific on a cargo ship. My clever step-mother suggested a new title for it - Stowaway. More recent digging online revealed an article by birder David Roche, describing his fairly recent sighting in the Orkney islands at the Northernmost tip of Scotland, October 2021. In a frenzied Whatsapp message to his wife he wrote 'f****** Varied Thrush! Second British record!' Hopefully the significance won’t be lost on the jury panel in March.