Geese and a little bit of crows

So, well, has it been a month since I last posted? I have been quite absorbed in birds and am becoming a bit of a bird nerd. This is a good thing I guess. I went to a talk on goshawks held by the RSPB last week which was really informative, great photos and the speaker also had some funny stories to tell. He was also talking about the persecution of goshawks, which he got quite agitated about, so he had to switch to other topics every now and again to stop himself from getting angry. You know I have always associated the word persecution with religion and to have it applied to birds was quite unsettling. I was thinking, "how can birds be persecuted?" I know it sounds like a stupid thing to ask but for some reason I didn't get the concept. And then he started talking about shooting of goshawks so that game pheasants aren't hunted, about poisoning, about illegal taxidermy and felling of trees where nests are not checked for first. He made the point that because goshawks are not cute little birds (it sounds as though they eat anything, including other goshawks if dead) they are sometimes not held in high regard and perhaps not considered as worthy to be cared for/preserved. Needless to say I gushed a lot of this information at my crit on Monday. With the paintings of geese below I was thinking in some way about darkness and extinction, but I also just found sheer delight in the way their wings moved in different time to each other and how they clumped together in groups when they were flying. I used wood I had found in the off cuts bin in the wood workshop - someone had obviously been doing more creative things with wood than I would think of - and adjusted my compositions around that. I am not sure yet how I will take that idea further - if I cut into wood with a purpose will it just look artificial? Not sure. I also tried some screen printing of which most was unsuccessful, however I gleaned some ideas of how I can push it further going forward. So much more to say, but not enough room left to say it, except that I am doing 3D modelling in sepia ink next week at my botanical illustration course which I am very excited about!