Magpie at Tacking Point Lighthouse

Whilst visiting Tacking Point Lighthouse near Port Macquarie a group of magpies were hanging about on the safety railing near an ice cream van. Whenever someone bought an ice cream they would launch themselves at the falling crushed nuts. They were so brazen and simply stood their ground and wouldn't move if there were any nuts about. As we walked past, the magpie stood her ground on the railing and wasn't at all intimidated when I whipped out my camera and said, "I'm going to paint you miss". I would have been no further than 30cm away from her when I took several reference photos.

So, the subject is the female magpie, but I wanted more than that hence the nick name "The painting of a million brush strokes" came about. I wanted the grass, weeds, leaf litter etc., to look real and I found myself painting the background for months. The background is a compound of eight layers of different coloured greenery and wood chips etc. It wouldn't surprise me if I had used a million brush strokes.

Oil on linen mounted to panel
Canvas size: 561W x 61H x .5D cm
Image size: 52W x 57.5 There is a 2cm border all the way around the painting to ease framing options
Frame: Needs framing
Price includes shipping within mainland Australia and Tasmania.