Two for Joy

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I love Magpies and I like the composition you have chosen to portray this pair.

Thank you Fiona, I have just spotted your lovely 'Two for Joy' painting which was posted on my birthday!

We have seven of them visiting the garden to feed on the bird food we put out for the hens and I chose these two to paint. Your 'Two for Joy' look more 'joyous' than my two......I think mine are concentrating too much on eating!lol But however portrayed they are beautiful.

Oil on canvas 31 x 26cm. The title comes of course from the superstitious nursery rhyme, ‘One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy…’. Magpies have fascinated people for centuries and they have a variety of associations in folklore both good and bad. I like the image from the Chinese folk tale where a flock of magpies form a bridge to reunite two lovers for one day. I see magpies most days when I’m out and about, I love the way their tails fan out as they soar upwards from the verges to the trees or hedges. It was an image that easily sprang to mind when I started painting this picture. The yellow leaves are based on the ones I find in my garden in the autumn. My painting is an unashamedly romantic image, a celebration of love and life. The two birds are together, a couple mirroring each other in joyous flight, yet each is unique. The magpies are surrounded by a fluttering shower of golden heart shaped leaves.