I've painted a European Wild Cat for an information sign of a nature trail. It's done in gouache.












I did only one illustration of this spceis before, in B&W, 9 years ago. Now looking at it, I feel that it's quite crap. I'm not proud of it:

New pieces from my small watercolour series. These will be for sale at this year's British Birdwatching Fair.
White-tailed Eagle, Squacco Heron, Bengal Eagle Owl, Red-breasted Goose:













Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Imperial Eagle:

Some new pieces from the miniature watercolour series.
Stone Curlew, Bee-eater, River Lapwing, Thick-billed Lark, Rock Bunting, Firecrest.

I'm working on some smaller (12x15 cm) watercolours. They illustrate mainly Hungarian and Eastern European birds. These will be for sale on this year's British Birdwatching Fair.
Ural Owl, Great Reed and Aquatic Warblers:








Wallcreeper, Grey-headed Woodpecker, Hoopoe, Bluethroat:

I've created a mobile painting quit from a small wooden box. I've found it in around the house, and it turned out that it belinged to my great-great-grandfather. This will give a special atmosphere to the working with it.
In the field I have a lot of problem with evermoving birds. My painting equipment is so big, that it takes a very long time to pack everything out and then in. I hope this will be the solution.

I've been to Kiskunság area with my friend. We've planned some sketching.
We've found some post-breeding Pratincoles on a ploughed potato field. Here's one sketch:











And a photo of the same bird:













After a few hours we moved on, and settled down at a Bee-eater colony:

























The birds are breeding here in good numbers:

We went back to the Pratincoles in teh afternoon, and stayed with them after sunset.

My friend in the potato field:

A close encounter with a Hare:

It was a really hot day, so in the middle we decided to cool down in a canal closeby:

This is a new oil painting, a Bee-eater in its nesting habitat. This is based on my recent observations (see earlier blogs).
Here's the preliminary watercolour sketch:
















The basic compostition:















All the scene underpainted with an ochrish warm colour:
















The current state. I can't see how will it look like at the moment, but this is quite usual at this stage of my paintings. And this often makes me quite lethargic. Hopefully it will develop in the right way...