Rooks Gleaning by Fiona Phipps

Really like this Fiona - great colours and movement. Was good to see your original sketch.

Nice Fiona. Good movement in the birds

This is what I expected as a follow up to your I-phone sketch. The rooks and the ones on the telephone wires are great.

Thanks again Margaret, Richard for leaving your comments.....I think I could take this further, perhaps charcoal next! Many thanks David, there were hundreds of rooks, it was quite a sight, thought I had better thin them out a bit.

It must have been quite a sight with all those Rooks. Lovely movement!

It was Margaret, one of those wow moments, for me anyway, I love rooks!

This is great from your iPhone sketch Fiona, a brilliant way of getting things done quickly while on the move. Unfortunately I don't have an iPhone and do rely on photos which I then transfer to my laptop, where I can enlarge the image as my eyesight isn't what it used to be, 😎

You’ve done the painting already! It looks great from a simple iPhone sketch.

Really nice, Fiona. Love the colours and the movement.

One time you used just a whiff of colour, but now colourific, 👍

Captured the scene well and the birds really look like they are moving.

Love this, Fiona, super movement and action gallore!

Thank you all very much for your comments, much appreciated.

Spontaneous and good Fiona.

Fiona I found this before I saw your original I-phone sketch. This has got so much movement in it and I wondered if it was also terribly noisy. I really like it. As you were driving back from the lighthouse does that mean a lighthouse painting/print may be on the way?

Thank you Jim! Thanks Carol, yes it was! I hadn’t thought about the lighthouse to be honest.....I can never get them straight, they always seem to have a lean.

My kind of thing!

Thanks Gudrun!

Those rooks flying at the top are great Fiona! A new word for me as well..'gleaning'. We don't get gleaning rooks round here. Pigeons wouldn't be such fun to paint quickly as your rooks obviously were :) It's a good sketch!

Hello Louise.....hope you’ okay. Thanks for dropping in and for your comment. I think ‘gleaning’ is a right of law, or was. Something to do with the lawful collection of leftover crops after harvesting, mainly grain but it also stretched to other crops. Some of the farms around the village where I grew up, grew fields of potatoes and after they were harvested, some of the less fortunate of the villagers would take bags and buckets etc to pick up the potatoes that were left on the field. Or even if there were any gypsies on the green, they would too. I like the word Gleaning, it’s got a good sound....lol. I’ve seen pigeons Gleaning on harvested cereal fields Louise, they are definitely not as painterly as rooks though. Thanks again!

I looked the word up Fiona and agree that it has a nice ring to it! We get a few fat gleaning pigeons on our lawn, parts of which I've been trying to re seed. They follow me round! We need some rain and it's not often I say that. I'm fine, just haven't been painting. Probably because I haven't had the house to myself recently and I need to be 'home alone' when painting. Also, the garden's kept me busy. Things should get back to normal in a couple of weeks so I should pick up the brushes then and re wet my dried up paints. I tell myself that a break is a good thing!

Sounds as though you are a pigeon meal ticket Louise! I understand, it’s a busy time of year, I have a large garden and I love being in it, so the painting takes second place. When you re-wet your paints, I know you will come back with a bang! Look forward to it.

Thanks Fiona :)

That's a great lively result from your iPhone sketch Fiona. Lots of colour and I love your rooks.

Thanks very much Val, I couldn’t not do them!

Good idea and the rooks work well

Thank you very much David!

Fab picture Fiona. I just love the movement in those birds.

This is so light, it almost floats away. It’s as if a fairy painted it! Perhaps the wings of the birds have lifted it up. Beautifully done.

What a poetic description Stella....thank you.

i like the movement you got in this one, Fiona

Thanks very much Allan.

Great movement in this painting.

Thank you again Rupert.

This is a beauty, so full of life and the love of birds. You've captured their flights and landings to bring something magical to this painting.