New Merchandise Available

I am very excited to announce the launch of a collection of products featuring my artwork. In case you are looking for gifts, mugs, blankets, pillows, prints, bags and cases, you can find a wide collection at https://auswildlifeart.com/collections/matteo-grilli

Garden Visitors - the Rainbow Lorikeets

A flock of Rainbow Lorikeets darting and calling each other in the sky. You can't get more Australian than this. I was noticing how nature manages to get some kind of balance, for instance, such a colorful and flamboyant bird is often appreciated for its look but certainly not for its calls, rather harsh and unpleasant for us, even though they sometimes produce some kind of mellow sounding whistles. If we think of all the avian species famous for their songs, they seem to never show a bright colorful plumage, they are in fact rather dull or humble in terms of colours. Feel free to bring some examples if you know otherwise!

As all other parrots they seem to tie very close bonds within the members of a couple.

And yet their colours are not just pretty, they end up being very useful to communicate within the flock and to deceive predators. Predators looking from the sky would find it hard to focus on a single bird looking just as the tree canopy on which it feeds, while other members of the flock will never loose eye contact with one another, thus helping each other as all flock birds do.

Shop update: the opening of my online shop has been delayed for a little bit longer, I was probably too optimistic, I just want to make sure everything is just right, this week I'm going to see some print samples and hopefully by the end of this week or the next at the longest I'll be ready for the opening. Exciting times!

All the best

M

Rainbow Lorikeets

It is no wonder that when the 1500s Portuguese explorers, mapping the coasts of Australia, named it Psittacorum regio, the Latin for 'Land of parrots'. When I first come to Australia I was astonished to see how easily parrots can be seen in great numbers in any environment, city included. In this period of the year, southern hemisphere spring, trees are blooming very generously and lorikeets are very busy taking the best advantage out of this great food opportunity. The Rainbow Lorikeet is probably the most common Lorikeet in Australia, an icon from Darwin to Adelaide. They are also frequent visitors of bird feeders, but they are bold and aggressive to other species chasing every other bird away, this is in fact one of the reasons for the decline of some other bird species where Rainbow Lorikeets are numerous.  Their screeching calls are filling the air, sometimes harsh, sometimes full of joy, to see them darting in the sky is always a pleasure.

For the Italian readers, or anybody who reads Italian, I started writing for a website called 'I love Australia', written and managed by Italians in Australia, a website whose goal is to give information about anything related to this country, from immigration to nature, travel and holiday and more: http://www.iloveaustralia.it/

Until next time!       Matteo

Latest Yeronga Park Sketches

I am keeping an eye to that Scaly-breasted Lorikeets' nest, it seems they've got chicks to feed, while into the other couple's nest on the other side of the tree there doesn't seem to be a family... I've been using a new kind of art material experiment that is a fountain pen filled with watercolor paint (charcoal gray), it is giving brilliant results so far...

Scaly-breasted Lorikeets

First left: Rainbow Lorikeet, tail feather. Second: Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, tail feather. Third: Rainbow Lorikeet, primary covert.

Different colours for different lives

Australian miscellanea

This is a small collection of encounters gathered  after a few hours spent in the bush (Toohey Forest).