Parrot Mountain – Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art

Happy Bastille Day!! Vive la France!!

Love that place!! Rescued birds living in the middle of a gorgeous mountain top garden.

I was experimenting with the tree backgrounds in these. Parrot Mountain is a garden in the woods.

The parrots and cockatoos were just screaming draw me in thier hat villages.

If there’s anything I don’t like to paint in watercolor is trees and lots of greenery. I never know whether to go leafy or washy. So I did both.

The washy background which was much easier to do.

I laid down a ground of light yellow green. Then kept adding darker and darker greens trying to loose some of my edges either with a damp brush or blotting with a wad of Kleenex.

Doing some negative painting I added dark blues and greens along the top of the bushes and then I splattered the bushes.

I also flipped thru my two go to tree references for a quick refresher.

Don’t know if it helped.

They both have great color mixing tips. And the green chart in the second book.

I am trying to practice for the painting of the big mountain strip- deciding on colors and techniques to use. At three feet long it’s a big watercolor.
I also splattered both of the sketches. The dirt on the cockatoos and the bushes on the parrot one.

Anyway another busy day so off I go. Hope you are chilling in this heat! 104 yesterday!! 😳😎

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Hot off the paint brush. Red macaw at parrot mountain. Best sketching fun I have had in a while. And it looks so much better painted.

Pyrrole red alizarin Crimson maganese blue and the usual culprits cerulean burnt sienna Inathrodone blue all done wet on wet. Oh burnt umber for the blacks.

I often wonder why I can draw animals and scenery in public as people drift by but if I am drawing people I like to hide my sketchbook.

A peach cockatoo. He was too far away and people kept walking in front of the bird. Painted with a red orange soup that was on my Pallette.

Entrance to Parrot Mountain and yes those are very steep steps. Pant pant. But the flowers are lovely. Parrot Mountain takes in rescued birds of all types but most exotic birds like parrots and macaws and large parakeets. Owners don’t realize that some of these birds can out live them.

We went in this way which is I guess the handicapped access- a concrete ramp which should be labeled ramp to heaven. Very steep!

A few macaws under their hats near the parking lot. Someone asked why they don’t fly away. They can’t. The wing feathers are cropped so the best they can do is flutter a short distance. Sad for the birds but at least they are well taken care of in a lovely jungly spot.