Watercolors…For The Birds

In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been posting recipes for a while.  It’s not that I don’t cook anymore (okay, I don’t really cook anymore), but it’s just that I don’t really have any new baking inspiration.  That, and Texas is so hot and humid, it makes fondant cake decorating nearly impossible in a regular house kitchen.  I do still bake the important cakes – like Seven and Rusty’s birthday cakes, I just haven’t shared them here with you.

Another thing I haven’t told you?  I was sick.  For a long time.  A couple of years, actually, to the point I just didn’t know what I was going to do.  Several doctors made attempts to fix me, some made me worse, none made me better.  Finally, by accident, we discovered the problem, I had immediate surgery, and then gradually…I have really improved.  Thank goodness!  While I was sick and in recovery last summer, I spent a lot of time lounging in my new back yard.  It was there that I discovered an app that identifies birds by their song, and I got hooked!  Now I collect their sounds wherever I go, and then a few days ago, while visiting my parents, I started trying to paint some of them.

Yes, paint.

I went to college years ago for Art History, but the actual painting – well – I was better at studying it versus executing it.  Then a couple of months ago, while on a cruise through the Panama Canal, I took a little class on watercolors and decided I liked it.  I painted a couple of scenes from my travels, then once home…I gave it up.  I know, typical me.  But on this visit to Virginia, after riding around in the mountains collecting new birds, I decided to pull out my paints and give it a go.

Here are a few of the birds I have done.  I only paint the ones I have collected in my app (I have over 70 now) and I am hoping I improve, or at least, get more comfortable with the way watercolors behave.

Soon, I hope.  Soon.

Any advice from fellow painters? Or bird lovers? I would love to hear from you!