Today painting inspiration was thin on the ground and it took me until the last hours of my day to get to the drawing board. Things like grocery shopping, laundry, and putting out my first ever newsletter sucked up my time.

But when I finally sat down, my morning hike with the dogs came back to me and I decided to paint this photo of a lovely downy woodpecker I saw on our hike.

One of my favorite bird artists is Lori Presthus because she does exquisite calm backgrounds. I resolved to try to mimic her style for this painting.

It’s harder than it looks, but considering how late in the day this is… I’m going to take it.

In addition to my painting a day challenge, maybe I’ll enter this in my vague idea for a “Birds of Canemah” series. So far I have my owl and this… but it’s a start.