A painting in progress

I've been working on taking some of my better ideas from small 7" x 7" paintings and doing 20" x 20"s in a similar way.  It's been a struggle to keep the larger ones as simple as the small studies.  I've done three - though not all finished yet....and I'm happy with the way they are progressing.

My landscapes often have a bird somewhere in the image - not always conspicuous. I let the painting dry before adding the bird...and often I don't know which bird species I'll use or how many.  Once the painting is dry, I sketch in (with a paintbrush)the bird shapes.  If I don't like size or placement, I wipe them off and try again.

When this painting is dry,  I plan to paint in a distant flock of flying white ibis moving diagonally from left to right - a few over the distant dark trees, one or two crossing over from the brown marsh to the distant trees and a few over the brown marsh.  I"ll use the white line of birds to unite the marsh with the distant trees.

Untitled & Unfinished

20" x 20" oil on linen