Birds, Squirrels and Creations

Over the summer we've had lots of wild birds eating their way through my wages (or put it another way, through fat balls and bird seed!) At one stage the baby starlings were going through 10 fat balls a day. Now they've slowed down, it lasts perhaps two days ;p But it's okay because there is one shop which sells them cheap (49p for six fat balls, way cheaper than anywhere else - usually they're like £1.99 for six - ridiculous really!) But this isn't a blog post about the price of bird food! It's actually about what I witnessed today. I happened to be looking out at the bird feeders when I saw a squirrel sat on the bird table. It's the first time I've ever seen one here and I really hope it comes back (after all, it's practically a rat with a fluffy tail ;)) I was concerned it might destroy my peanut feeder (it's made of very thin wire, it wasn't very pricey) as that was the only thing really for it to eat. I've since topped up the rest of the food, so maybe I'll catch sight of it again soon. I don't understand why some people hate squirrels when they feed the birds. I've often heard customers complain where I work about squirrels but they've got to eat too. Hopefully it won't freak the birds out though if it does return!

Ironically, I finished a picture of squirrels recently (perhaps my pictures act as a premonition?!) This one is in acrylics and very large. Makes me want to do another large and detailed picture but not sure what of yet.

Other than that I've arranged to have a stall at another show (hopefully). It's a dog show so I'm trying to fit in time to do some new dog related art. I'm also pondering on whether to go back to college for a part-time course in accounting. I'm really unsure whether to or not... Maybe I'd try it for a year and see what happens (it's a three year course). It's killing me to think of sacrificing art time though as that's the day I typically do art (I work full time so other days of art are limited - I could probably get away with doing more graphite work but painting I prefer to work for hours rather than stop and start. It's too much cleaning up all the time otherwise and having to remix paint which never turns out exactly the same colour again). Arrggh, what to do?!

Lastly on the art front I finished creating Arrow. I still haven't managed to get any more detailed photos yet so the following will have to do for now. He took hours! The proportions aren't exactly right but as it was a first attempt for me doing something like this I'm happy enough with it (and the fur is so lovely quality all I want to do is cuddle it hah!) I hope to try and make something else like this but only have limited fur colours (black and grey) so would have to be something those colours until I have money to spare on fur!

-The Blogging Rat