The Exhibition opening went well.  I received welcome positive comments about my work which is very encouraging and some sales.  All in all it was a very enjoyable opening and I loved having a conversation with my visitors about my love of birds and nature in general.  Many people shared my thoughts about how amazing birds are and told me their own stories of their interactions and observations of birds around us.  I think they are indeed much loved "Companions"..

​I've been inspired by a pair of Tawny Frogmouths that visit the Mango Tree by the deck.  So instead of my usual acrylic paintings I picked up a beautiful piece of watercolour paper and painted the background first.  I love the translucent nature of watery paints and when applied wet on wet I love the way the colours run into each other to create new colours.  I finished the birds off in Gouache.

In March 2016 my husband and I ventured out of Australia to another land.  A virtual fairyland that was the South Island of New Zealand.  It was the most beautiful place to be and for a landscape artist or photographer, absolute heaven.  Birds were harder to spot but by the time we left I was feeling the influence of the patterns of nature.  Things like the new fronds on the Silver Leaf Tree Fern,  the West Coast with it's pebbled beaches and patterns of the ebb and flow of the tides in the sand.   I sketched a few of my observations in my visual diary.