Just kidding, it’s a kingfisher. 40″ by 40″ (a good meter squared), acrylic.
I started work on Phoenix (which at that time was under the working title of Heledir, or literally “kingfisher” in Tolkien’s Sindarin language) last summer — it was the first time anyone had trusted me with a canvas as big as this, and I spent hours thinking about what exactly I would paint. In the end, I settled for this: a kingfisher soaring out of water, the kingfisher being my father’s favourite bird, and this being intended as a present for his 50th birthday.
As it turned out, I was not finished in time for his 50th. But I did make his 51st!
I failed to take progress pictures last year, so they start from this year. It took quite literally weeks to finish it off, during which time I churned through three different audiobooks and at the end of which I was positively sick of bubbles of water. Anyhow, it’s done! Finally! And I have a new signature, which I think I’ll stick with (:
The Hirt Portfolios 
Was this painting done in your spare time or was it for an assignment? Because how do you find so much time to work on this piece?
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Spare time for sure! Like, seven weeks of spare time over the course of two summers. I could never have done it during schooltime 😉 (though actually… I’ve managed to knit two jumpers, so maybe a painting is possible too!)
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