Yellow-bellied Sunbird with Bell flowers
8x10 inch print
by Tina Burke

(I'm struggling a little to get my Etsy visuals to match the clean colours of the prints — on my monitor this is a better reproduction!).

I'm hoping to go for some long walks this weekend and enjoy the spring blooms and some more colourful inspiration. The lilacs are in full bloom, the peonies are about to explode, and the bird life is back . . . happy sigh . . .

Ruby-throated hummingbird and orchid
8x10 inch print
by Tina Burke

Starting the online store was always part of my original intention when setting up this website — I love reading other artist's blogs, and seeing what they're doing on Etsy, and I wanted to be a part of it myself.  It's such an amazing opportunity that technology has offered us — to be able to get our work out there to the world so easily. Admittedly, it also feels very easy to get lost in the far reaches of the internet wilderness and the enormous Etsy community, and that can be quite daunting and off-putting, but I felt I should at least make an appearance, have my little home in the online world, to be easily "findable" when people look for me.  Plus it just kinda looks like fun!

I'm feeling quite proud of myself :) It takes some time to organise the pieces, research printing, do print colour tests, research the market, prepare images, and finally set up shop and organise your wares — and I'm sure I'll have a lot more to learn as I go along.  However, now it's done I feel I've accomplished a huge personal goal. It's always exciting and satisfying to take a step forward somehow, to try something new.

And now I can tick that off, I'm itching to get back to the basics — creating some art! The approaching spring weather gets me inspired to capture all those buds and blooms and birds on paper . . . 

I was so thrilled to see I'd made Christine Mason Miller—aka swirlygirl's—"five things" list this week. I have her blog on my rss feed so I can lurk about and read it everyday, so it was a slightly surreal and thrilling moment to see my artwork and name pop up there today!
Mucho chuffed! Thanks swirlygirl!!

Plus, how cute are zebra finches, even when they're not paying guitar? I'm not the only one who loves them — they're one of the most popular species for bird owners. I love drawing them in black and white, with smudges of colour — I've done three different drawings of zebra finches (all sold, and unfortunately I didn't photograph them first so I can't show them to you). Zebra finches are native to central Australia and the ranges, are happy in hot, dry heat, and live in large flocks.

But back to the art side of things, videos like this are such great reference for drawing. Being able to watch birds in action, jumping about at all angles, getting a sense of their movement, then being able to pause in any pose to get a better look and sketch it. You can't do that in the wild.

rough sketch for "Rosie and Ned and the Creepy Cave"
written by Meredith Costain, illustrated by Tina Burke
Published by Penguin Books 2010

As I look at blogs of creative people online, many have various outlets for their creativity — like art and writing, or knitting and collage work, photography and sewing .... I wonder whether they chop and change over the course of the day, or week, or find they work better if they focus on one craft at a time?

I find I go through phases. I won't, for example, work on a book in the morning then a bird painting in the afternoon. With me it's all one or the other. I set aside time — a week or a few weeks, for my birds, but when working on a book it can often be many weeks at a time, because a) publishing is a time-intensive field and each book will have multiple illustrations, and b) when I'm in my "kid's book" headspace, or working on a new story idea that excites me, that's simply all I can think about. Same goes for my "bird art" headspace. Don't even try and distract me.

There's a lot to be said for focusing on one craft/technique/outlet — it's how artists finesse their style and become masters rather than dabblers, but it seems there are also a lot of artists whose creativity just can't help but overflow into other areas or styles, and I do believe that often the various skills and styles can feed into each other and blend together to create our own unique vision (well, depending on the craft. I like to bake, too, but it doesn't help my drawing other than to give me snacks while I work). But even if the various endeavours don't quite blend together, diversity keeps life interesting, too, and that's a good thing. Plus I like snacks.

My inspiration for doing my series of birds in graphite actually came after illustrating this series of children's books that I'm currently working on. They are "chapter books" (short novels for early readers with lots of b&w illustrations). A lot of illustrators use ink/wash for these type of books, but I went with graphite. I love doing them — it's going back to pure drawing in it's most basic form. So I decided to do b&w illustrations for our two-storey, very blank wall in our loft apartment. Only instead of my cartoony style, I went back to my "grown-up" style.

Random Australian images (for our apartment in Canada)
by Tina Burke

left to right, top to bottom:
● countryside
● Palm Cockatoo
● Red-whiskered Bulbul (not an Australian native, but we had them in our garden and their cheerful chirrups made me happy)
● a rose from mum's garden
● Shelly Beach, Port Macquarie
● gum tree
● wind-swept tree at Nobby's Beach, Port Macquarie
● black swan (we used to feed them in Centennial Park, Sydney)

It's filled with images in the same style as the cover - spectacular portraits of an array of birds against a blank white background (such as the image of the Blue-fronted Amazon, below). It allows you to really focus on the beautiful designs and details of each unique species, with no distractions - just clean, crisp photos and wonderful compositions which capture the bird's personality and movement in a split second.

Love the promo video ...





and I'm always fascinated by a little behind-the-scenes insight ...





It's well worth checking out the spectacular website devoted to this book, with loads of photos and film footage of Andrew's beautiful work.


Bird by Andrew Zuckerman
Published by Chronicle Books, 2009

Spring is a collaborative project that has a single, overarching theme: inspiration.
Through videos, blog posts, and the website itself, Spring is opening an insightful
dialogue that focuses on helping you design a life you love.

Spring serves as your hub for celebrating successes, feeling proud of
yourself and others, and of course, cheering on those around you.

In fact, pretty much everything on the website sounds right up my alley. I love that there is such a strong and growing online community of creative people, joining together to share stories and support. It's so necessary.

... also known as a Yellow-Bellied Sunbird, found in areas from Southern Asia to Australia. I remember the first time I saw a sunbird in Australia I was surprised how little it was - so tiny and fragile looking, like a hummingbird.

This is a male - they have a vivid blue-black metallic sheen on their throat and forehead. As is often the case, they are fancier than the female. She has a yellow belly and throat, with the brownish-olive coloured head and back, but no shiny bling.

I've been excited to launch my shiny, freshly cleaned and polished website for my children's books, so I've been working feverishly to get it up and running, leaving not much time for my birds this week.

I was re-inspired to get it all sorted out after being in somewhat of an incubation period over the past few months, doing the wonderfully encouraging Creative Thursday course, In the Fishbowl: Life as an Artist Online. I'm sad that our sessions have finished, but at the same time I'm left feeling inspired, focused and thrilled to have been a part of it.

As you can see, my children's books are a different style altogether to my bird art, but I feel more clear-headed having the two areas more clearly united, while still having their own little home.


And now there's just one thing left for me to do ...

Happy Dance!!

I've been experimenting on "hand-aged" watercolour paper as an extension on my series of drawings - which in turn were inspired by antique and vintage prints. I've been a bit obsessed with hummingbirds lately, and inspired by an orchid plant I specifically bought for this painting. I'm just pleased I was able to keep it alive long enough to paint - the last one we had died in record time (turns out they don't need much water).

Objects like these make me want to draw and paint, and remind me to have fun with the subject matter - to not always get too bogged down in reality, but aim to capture the magic of the birds and the natural world. I hope to evoke a feeling and focus on the interesting designs, rather than purely rendering an accurate portrait.

That said ... I'm off to paint!

I ♡ an atmospheric cathedral...



and the Cotswolds ...

... and the Lakes District - "Beatrix Potter country" - and where I want to live in my daydream for at least part of the year. That time would also involve holding some drawing and painting workshops, where we would take lots of walks for inspiration and reference, and regular breaks for tea in pretty teacups and scones with jam and clotted cream. Occasionally we would draw.

Next stop - Scotland!!


″A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.”
~ Moslih Eddin Saadi ~

I'm working in acrylics on watercolour paper (Arches Hot Press block). It's hard to find tropical flowers in these parts, especially in the Fall, so I went to Allan Gardens to find some inspiration. The bird is an olive-backed sunbird, one of the birds I saw at the ROM last week.

My aim is to have it finished in order to submit it to the Society of Animal Artists - application for membership is due by October 23rd, for anyone who may be interested.

I'm just tweaking this piece and all going well, will post the finished painting soon ...

So after long intention, and much lurking, I finally have my little blog to display my art and join in on the conversation. I’m very excited!

I started an online course this week: In the Fishbowl: Life as an Artist Online after admiring Creative Thursday’s Marisa Haedike’s work, blog and generous spirit. I signed up 6 weeks ago, waited impatiently, and used the course as an impetus to finally get this website built and online.

Her first gentle and inspiring podcast got us thinking about what we do. The first question was “Why do you love what you create?” And with that, I finally found the focus for my first blog topic.

why do I love what I create?

I love trying to capture the magic I experience from nature - the intake of breath and flash of joy I get from an unexpected glimpse of a bright bird as it flashes past, or stumbling across a flower species that I’ve never seen before. I linger over the details in nature, but also love the simple peace and inspiration I feel from the natural world, and try to incorporate both in my artwork. I love the mixture of a misty and evocative atmosphere that can be represented by a dreamy smudge, leaving your imagination to fill in the gaps, combined with the tiny, intricate and beautiful details you only notice when looking closely at a bird or flower. I'm fascinated by the array of colours and ornate and fantastical designs that nature presents.

That never-ending journey as I try to capture all this - from an infinite supply of inspiration - brings me such pleasure and satisfaction.

And that’s why I love what I create.

It's an excellent question ... it reminded me why I do what I do, and how lucky I am to have something in my life that's so simple, yet brings me so much joy. A perfect headspace to be in as I launch my new site and gallery!