After my Tassie trip I got inspired to continue my adventures in bird photography and watercolour paint. I particularly enjoyed spending time learning about the birds I had been getting photos of and jotting down some notes about them in my sketch book. The thing I learnt as I spent more time trying to get interesting photos of birds was that you need to spend the time in the field just observing their behaviour. If I was patient and not so anxious about getting the perfect shot I would occasionally see some behaviour that I had never seen before. I noticed that watching birds interact with each other and their environment made me want to get photos that captured their behaviours or the character of their surroundings. So when I began my next attempts at watercolours I wanted somehow to include aspects of the bird’s natural environment and behaviour. The thing that came to mind was a shadow box. This inspiration led me to try a number of different paintings and to try and place the bird in a shadow box with some information about their character or behaviour and some bits and pieces from their landscape. In someways the ideas I had in mind reminded me of my fascination with scientific shadow box collections or the famous assemblage art of the 1950s and 60s.
So my first experiments were mostly from my own photos of local birds, where I tried to include something of the birds ecosystem. Starting with the little Yellow-Rumped Thornbills that I often captured feeding on the ground near where I lived at the time. I really enjoyed trying to gather some similar natural material..rocks and bark with interesting textures and colours. Trying to assemble the shadow box in a realistic way to showcase the bird. I loved the photo I found of a Rainbow Bee-eater and instantly wanted to paint it. I even went as far as adding a bee to the shadow box. Of course I had to do my favourites - the lovely Superb Fairy-wrens. I also wanted to do one about the first Eastern Yellow Robin I ever photographed. I was amazed when on the drive down to Tasmania it perched on a tree next to me ready to pounce on any unsuspecting insects on the forest floor.