Feather your nest

I've always been a bit of a collector. As a kid, I used to keep little white pebbles (or 'lucky stones' as we called them), leaf skeletons, coral and shells from our beach holidays (along with a few poor little hermit crabs that I used to stash in the car without my parents' knowledge )....and feathers. I always loved finding feathers, particularly white ones, as my Nan used to tell me they were good luck. The gorgeous patterns and colours always appealed to my artistic side, too. So here's a little feather study I did the other day:

'Collected'

watercolour on paper

210mm x 297mm

prints available in my Etsy shop

I'm thinking I may start a series of feather paintings - and peacock feathers are next on my list.I found this pic the other day:

source

They are lovely, aren't they? I personally would never use feathers unless I found them myself - I hate the thought of how some of them are harvested, but they're undeniably beautiful.

I know the ultimate bowerbird, Sibella Court, is partial to the odd feather or twelve...