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A (relatively) simple painting on one of my smallest (4" x 6") panels! As is the case with a lot of these recent pieces, I've had the abstract for this one for a few years, and was only just able to figure out what I wanted to do with it. I'd like to do more paintings with multiple subjects and this was a good entry point for that.

If you don't live in an area with ravens, it's such a privileged joy to see paired couples interacting. It's not uncommon to see them flying together, weaving in and out from each other, or sometimes playing 'keep away' with some piece of leaf or whatnot carried in one's beak. I sometimes wonder what the guidelines are for some of the games that they play, or whether they even have set rules in mind around it as opposed to just improvising in the moment. They'd almost certainly be capable of either!

Technique wise, this was a case of testing how few sessions I could get a painting done in, as I'm trying to grow my competency in handling the medium. This one I got done as an underpainting, then a pass which got it most of the way to the finish, then a shorter final session to place some trickier marks (in case I needed to wipe out if I got those wrong at first.) I had to have confidence in working wet on wet more than usual, and working so small made that both easier and harder at the same time.

The original painting has now sold, but new raven oil work is currently in progress! If you don’t want to miss out on picking up new originals, joining my Patreon will give you first dibs on all new paintings.