I have eventually bought my starter pack of oil paints and brushes.  SO exciting!  I wanted to buy a whole set of Michael Harding oil paints as the colours are gorgeous, rich and deep, but found the price to outside my comfort zone.  So, I opted for a combination of Michael Harding colours for my favourites and less expensive ones for the basics.

However, having poured over my new acquisitions with delight and found an old painted box to put them in, I find myself pulled in another direction entirely...... Outside my window hangs a calabash / gourd bird feeder and it is currently aching under the weight of screeching, fluttering, ever moving little birds.  I'm currently enjoying sketching and painting Variable Sunbirds, Bishop and Widow Birds with their long black tails and and red collars, whole flocks of yellow squabbling Weaver Birds, and finally, my favourites, scatterings off little bouncing Cordon Bleu finches and Red Billed Firefinches.  

For the moment, I'll delay learning a new skill, while I enjoy recording these beauties ...

At last things are going to plan.  The paintings I'm producing for my show are both new, contemporary and Kenyan at the same time.

I've really enjoyed painting the 'Musai' flowers onto linen - I still haven't found out what the latin / European name is for them... and the sunflowers that so restricted our view from the house are at last down on canvas.

I've discovered how difficult it is to make bougainvillea look like bougainvillea and how difficult it is to paint landscapes with acrylics.  But practice is always a good thing.

Now to tackle the framing........