Insects and a Yabby's claw

1. Freshwater Crayfish or Yabby, Cheerax destructor, claw -Crow's Nest, QLD.

2. Evening Brown Butterfly, Melanitis leda -Brisbane City.

3. Red Arrow Dragonfly, Rhodothemis liftinacki -Crow's Nest, QLD.

4. Australian Emperor Dragonfly, Hemianax papuensis -Brisbane.

5. Unidentified Moth, -my room.

Pale-headed Rosellas

Toohey Forest. To my surprise they were not as shy as usual this time. The couple stood on the same tree for a long while, giving me the chance to observe and study them thoroughly. Among the amazing variety of Australian Rosellas, the Pale-headed is the only one I've observed in Brisbane so far..



New generations and feathers

Autumn encounters: new generations, a young Kookaburra, and moulted feathers, one from the Kookaburra's tail. 

Teals and Stilts

 

This is the last painting from the Sleeping Birds series, Chestnut Teals and Black-winged Stilts, ink and watecolour on paper, 30x40cm, from a beautiful place just about a hour north of Brisbane called Bribie Island, that place teems with wildlife..

More from the Sleeping Birds series....

Female Golden-shouldered Parrot, water colour on paper, 25x20.5cm, 2011. The species is endangered, they have a very intimate relationship with termites, they make their nest inside termites mounds at the same time the young termites bugs are hatching, so the termites keep the yung parrots warm and the baby parrots provide termites with food that is their droppings.. a good example of cooperation.

 
Tawny Frogmouth, water colour on paper, 24.5x28.5, 2011.

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...

The Sleeping Birds Series goes on...

I am a half way to finish this collection (10 artworks so far) ... this time I'm posting the Silver Gull and the Emu. I tried to use as less colour as possible for the Silver Gull, which is easy for gulls since they're very light coloured, while I needed to use a bit more for the sleeping Emu, I had this very close and sweet contact at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. I can see in the Emu the influence that Louis Agassiz Fuertes has had on me...

Feathers

A few feathers found at Yeronga Park, Brisbane, to start a new journal. Stone Curlew (?), Masked Lapwing, Crested Pigeon and Tawny Frogmouth...

Little Corella

Cacatua sanguinea. I wanted to go out to draw birds, but the weather has been a bit wild lately in Qeensland, so I opted to do some studio work today. Sleeping birds are attractive and inspiring. Maybe I've just started a new body of work completely dedicated  to sleeping birds... sounds like a great idea!

Scaly-breasted Lorikeets

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