Falcon pastel drawing, kingfishers.

Greetings! Wow there really are people out there that read this! Thanks to the artist from Gisborne who sent me a message after the Rosegarden falcon died. I have just given up trying to work out how to reply to her in person because this site won't pass her email on to me. Or maybe I'm just too dumb to work it out.

I have just started a drawing of "42" one of the female falcons at Wingspan Rotorua.

I am using pastel pencils and it will be a slow process as it takes many layers to get the end result. (In this case the term pastel refers to an artists medium of coloured chalk and not soft colours like pinks and lemons.) Pastels more usually come in solid sticks like crayons but I like the pencil variety as you can get good detail. They do smudge easily though.

On Monday I joined a small group of "bird people" to help clean up the Apanui Saltmarsh by the Whakatane Yacht Club. We collected numerous bags of rubbish, a car wheel and a rusted shopping trolley! The saltmarsh is used by a very large number of bird species and it just behind our main shopping centre which is very handy. I often stop off there on the way to my studio in the mornings especially in the winter as we had a resident Kotuku and three spoonbills there. When the kotuku was elsewhere I would often photograph kingfishers from the yacht club balcony. When the tide and light were right I could get some great shots as they hovered for a second or two before diving down to catch a crab or small fish. They would hit the water with a loud "smack" before flying off with their prize if their aim was any good. I painted one at rest in a willow from a photo I took on the edge of Ohiwa Harbour recently. One day I'll paint one diving or flying off with a fish. I haven't spent any time at the yacht club since whitebaite season opened really as there always seems to be someone sitting on the point with a net.