Introducing: "Sweet Tooth", the White-bellied Sunbird

This year has been a whirlwind of growth, pivots, and learning curves — all good things, but not always easy ones! Somewhere in the midst of the chaos, I finally found the space (and headspace!) to return to my first love: photo-realistic wildlife art in watercolour. I’m so thrilled to share that my newest piece is finally finished — and what a joy it was to paint this tiny jewel of a bird!

Before I jump in — a huge thank you to the wonderfully talented bird photographer, Richard Flack, for the use of his stunning photograph of this White-bellied Sunbird. It was an absolute privilege to work from such a beautiful image! One of the things I love most about Richard’s work is the way he captures birds in context — not just a typical close-up of a bird, but a subject nestled in the richness of their natural surroundings. To do this particular photo justice, I decided to include much more of the background than I usually would: layers of tangled twigs, dappled leaves, and messy shrubbery that make the scene feel alive.

Since I usually don’t paint much of a background, this was a scary decision…! With watercolour, things that are in the background are lighter and less details than the foreground. This means adding more water to dilute the pigment. Before touching brush to paper on the actual thing, I practised wishy-washy shrubbery on scraps of paper. It took a while (and lots of procrastination!), but finally I felt confident enough to move over to the Real Deal. My plan was to finish all the shrubs and twigs first and only then move on to the bird. That way, if I messed up with the background, I wouldn’t have to redo the entire bird if I needed to start from scratch!

Alas, I had made only minimal progress, before I heard an imploring whisper from the birdie: “What about meeeeee?”. Naturally, I couldn’t help myself. How could I refuse that gorgeous little face?! So, I bounced over to the star of the show, and made swift progress on his adorable little mug.

Realising that I might mess up my entire paint-the-background-first-plan, I had to force myself to jump back and forth between the bird and the shrubs, making sure to make progress on both the bit that I love and the bit that I found extremely challenging. It was a pretty good tactic!

My favourite part was definitely painting the shiny, super colourful feathers on the bird’s breast. How amazing is Mother Nature?!?!

I loved every minute of this challenge — even the messy, shrub-filled ones! I’m not going to lie, though — after being away from my easel for so long, it felt strangely difficult to find my rhythm again. Like my painting-headspace was a bit dim and dusty… almost like a faraway memory! If it weren’t for the gentle encouragement from my incredible business coach and accountability group (here’s looking at you, Meryls!), I might never have finished. So thank you — truly.

Now, here’s a little peek behind the scenes at how Sweet Tooth came to life, from hesitant first brushstrokes to the final flourish!

The original painting and just 20 limited edition, fine art prints will be available in my online shop. If you’d like to reserve one ahead of launch, just pop me a message — I’ll be happy to put your name down!