One For Sorrow.

Magpie

Pica Pica

One for sorrow,

Two for mirth,

Three for a wedding,

Four for a birth,

Five for silver,

Six for gold,

Seven for a secret, never to be told.

This painting has been sat in the garage since I started it towards the end of May. I started it, but then stored it in the garage whilst we got the house ready for open studios. I have been meaning to go back to it ever since, and have done so twice since we broke up.
The magpie is a much maligned bird. We have a family of them who visit most days. I could say that they are a charm, a congregation, a gulp, a murder, a tiding or a tittering, but I'm pretty sure that it's a pair with young, and I'm not sure that that qualifies them for one of their many collective nouns.
In flight they tend to look ungainly, they have those stubby wings, but on the ground they are very elegant. I really like them.
Our Magpies, like our nervous crow, tend to stay down at the bottom of the garden. I still managed to get some decent photos of them though, and this painting is from one of those.

 The usual blocking in.

 Working into the early background.

 Detail.

 Session 2. Reworking the shape of the head.

 ..and slimming down the body.

I thought about stopping here, and did for a week or so, but it is too 'clean'.

Session 3. Working into the whole bird and background (detail).

I added a leg and called it done.

One For Sorrow.