Bird Book

My friend Christine is an artist, a long-time teacher, a good listener. A friend. We’ve been drawing together for years, over lunch at hers or mine. We know a lot of each other’s stories, the same stuff makes us laugh…she’s a gem. The foundation isn’t that though, it’s drawing. We both have the habit of daily drawing, of keeping books and of stacking them up to be consulted for ideas, for memories. Christine has a huge garden which includes vegetables, flowers, fruit…and birds. Birds are her passion and she has bird feeders…of several types.

The drawing book she started this past year is large and only is full of birds. I’ve been watching it evolve, and as it fills, bird after bird, it is becoming pretty fantastic. As it’s a journal of sorts, other things creep in. Random thoughts,

birthdays

A visit from the grands

sometimes just about the birds themselves…

OR….

And so the wonderful book of birds is filling up…a years worth of work and thinking and observation. It’s a treasure. And I draw her while she draws them, and on we go. On we go.

PS: Christine Hannegan’s portraits in oil of family, friends, persons of interest will be on view at The River Gallery in Independence, Oregon, this coming May. There’s even a painting of me (the first time anybody ever asked to paint me!)