Red-winged blackbird (female) painting

A small (6"x9") pastel painting on Colorfix sandpaper.

The bird is a female red winged blackbird with a beakfull of insects. I spent the whole morning at a local marsh, studying and photographing the many species of birds that inhabit the area. On this shot, she paused for a moment, balancing on a cat-tail before returning to her well-hidden nest to feed her young.

I've spent only a few hours working on this painting and it is advancing quite fast, which is somewhat of a relief. I need to get more smaller paintings done for several art shows this fall!