The Newly Fledged by Shayne Mcgirr

I know what you mean by that, having seen a large number of those plates, and yet you've added a freedom to those very careful images that one used to see in the old Ward Lock volumes, which pictured birds as they were in specimen form, but never quite were in real life. They were superb artists, whose plates were devoted to achieving recognition in the field; you have that accuracy but have brought a freedom to the images which I find very attractive - I live in one of the rather few areas where you can still see wild birds in abundance, and they never look quite as the old volumes portrayed them. The late Alan Green, who worked in watercolour, achieved the same kind of freshness - he painted for the Ladybird Books, which I miss very much; the children of today miss such a lot, I think!

I agree with you Robert. Those artists had amazing technique with watercolour and produced amazing paintings. It's a shame that some relied upon shot specimens for the feather details! Among my favourite of these artists are Pieter Cornelis de Bevere, Edward Lear and of coarse John James Audubon. It was fun painting this in oils especially trying to make the canvas look like aged paper. P.S. Thanks for your kind comments.

I'm amazed this is oils; I really thought it was a delicate watercolour. Well done.

This is beautiful delicate work, such detail and in oils!

This is really beautifully painted Shayne :-) Robert mentioned ladybird books, and well, i have one from my childhood of birds which is full of information about many types, and has really realistic paintings/illustrations of the different birds which is really helpful for me when painting, they do not seem to be sold anymore though, and i am not sure why........you are very talented.