murmuration

"Murmuration" - 20x30in mixed media abstract on canvas
"Murmuration" - 20x30in mixed media abstract on canvas

For each Wanaka Arts Society exhibition there is a general section for members to display work on any subject and in any medium, and a special section where members create a piece of work to a particular theme. This Easter the special section was "Wings", as this year was also the biannual Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow in our town.

Above is the piece I submitted into the Wings section. It is of those wonderful, beautiful, dynamic huge flocks of Starlings that seem to fly and move like a huge of school of fish. I've seen this twice in real life, once here in NZ near a little country town called Tarras, and once in southern France. Both times it was over way too quickly.

So here is "Murmuration" against one of my abstract Central Otago landscapes.

"Murmuration"
20x30in (50x76cm)
Acrylics, vintage image transfers, pencil on canvas
SOLD

Detail of "Murmuration" - acrylics, vintage image transfers and pencil on canvas
Detail of "Murmuration" - acrylics, vintage image transfers and pencil on canvas
Detail of  "Murmuration" - abstract landscape
Detail of "Murmuration" - abstract landscape
Paint a free watercolour online lesson

A free lesson for you!

One of my all-time favourite paintings of a stormy day in a ruined Roman town in Spain.

You can do this! Let me show you how. Join my community to receive this free video tutorial.

Join here
summer flowers & an old fence post

summer flowers & an old fence post

16 June 2026

There's something irresistibly paintable about a weathered fence post half-swallowed by summer wildflowers. It's the contrast that does it — rough, sun-bleached wood against the soft, fleeting delic...

Read more →

recap! travel sketching in france, 2026

recap! travel sketching in france, 2026

9 June 2026

Five times at Périgord Retreats, and the magic is still there.. Every single time I hop on the train in southern France and get whisked through French countryside and villages to Gourdon Station — ...

Read more →

painting zebras in watercolour

painting zebras in watercolour

3 June 2026

Ater spending time in South Africa recently, surrounded by the kind of wildlife you only see there, I came home with many sketches of zebras, giraffes, warthogs, baboons and more and a strong urge to ...

Read more →