Lucian Freud self-portrait

This is a self-portrait painted by Lucian Freud and it is on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London which I visited today. It is part of a display of 70 plus paintings spanning most of his life. I found the portraits the most interesting paintings and this one was a particular favourite as was the portrait of David Hockney and the man in the blue scarf. I was a less impressed by some of the later paintings which I found rather overpainted by lots of lumpy paint. All in all it was an interesting exhibition and well worth the visit. To finish off the visit to London we visited the National Gallery for a quick look at the "Impressionists"

This is a Rock Pipit which I painted after our trip to Durdle Door.There were several of these birds along the beach and my painting shows one of them on the cliff edge. As the cliff was chalk I thought that it would make an interesting picture on the greyish white background with the succulent growing in the cracks. At home the Tawny Owls are becoming a regular visitor at 06.00 every morning when they returns to roost in the large hedge of our neighbour's garden. For a week now both birds have returned to this roost and we often here them calling through the day. I doubt that they are going to nest here as there are no large trees available with suitable holes in them.

Long Tailed Tits, favourite birds of mine, just merging with the dying leaves. The birds are getting busy in the garden now with the breeding season approaching, the blackbirds are very active. The Tawny Owls are very vocal at daybreak and from time to time one is to be seen in the tree at the back of our garden. On one occasion I looked out to see them both sitting together in the tree. Unfortunately the light is never bright enough to see them properly just enough for a grey shape against the sky, even with the binoculars. The highlight last week was a male sparrowhawk who flashed into the garden scattering all the birds from the feeders. He stayed for a couple of minutes or so, just enough time for us to get a good view with the "bins". A lifetime tick for me, We have had the larger female sparrowhawks in the garden but never a male.