Colour and joy in the midst of trying times...

Colour and joy in the midst of drought and fires…watercolour background, gouache, acrylic pen and pencil highlights.

There’s always a little spot on my morning walk where I have to stop and take photos. I’m in love with gum blossoms, even when they are incubating these divine flowers. But it’s like the flowers knew that we all needed a bit of cheering up after the past 3 months of catastrophic fires, extreme heat and drought here in Australia. These particular gums have just exploded into flower and the rainbow lorikeets are rejoicing!

I grew up surrounded by birds and gums…my family home backed onto a bird sanctuary and my parents still live in this divine location…a suburb in Sydney believe it or not. But if you go into the backyard, you wouldn’t know you were even in the city (until the hum of trains going by) because all you can see are trees and birds.

The gums in my backyard were lemon scented and extremely tall, where as these beauties are the pink kind (will find out the official name) and quite small in comparison which is lucky for me because I can get quite close up to take pictures.

Such a joy to witness such brilliantly coloured (and noisy) birds enjoying these spectacular flowers.I was so taken by this bird that after sharing a photo on y Instagram stories I decided to paint him (or her).

Hope it brings some joy to you today,

xo Sancha

PS This artwork started out as a watercolour on Draw & Wash textured paper(210gsm medium tooth) then I added some gouache highlights as well as a touch of white acrylic pen and regular coloured pencils.