Tree Swallow ~ "Songbirds & Friends" ~ Watercolor curatedgifts running on nectar and tiny

running on nectar and tiny insects

The dual composition — two birds

perch on spade handles

The mineral pigments give the gray-blue plumage its characteristic luminosity — a cool shimmer that shifts depending on the light in your room

Tree Swallow ~ "Songbirds & Friends" ~ Watercolor curatedgifts running on nectar and tinyThis tree swallow watercolor art captures a bird made of light. Tree swallows have iridescent blue green backs that shift color with every angle one moment teal, the next deep violet, the next forest green. It's not paint on feathers. It's microscopic feather structure bending light. Painting that shimmer in watercolor means trusting the pigments to do what the bird does catch light and refuse to hold still. I worked freehand on archival cotton rag