Two oil studies for today, a loon and egret

I've had some emails saying, "but all your studies are sold"!  Actually, there are a few left - you can click here to see them - and I realize that you've got to click on each image to see if it is available.  FASO, my website company, used to put a red dot on the thumbnail as soon as it was marked SOLD.  I don't know what has happened to the red dot system - but I'll give FASO a call and ask.  UPDATE:  I called my website company and not only are the red dots back but the thumbnails are bigger!  Check it out!  Now you can see at a glance which paintings have sold.

To keep up with demand,  I can raise the price of the little studies - or paint more.  I'm really opposed to raising the price so I'm going to try to do two 75 for $75's a day. In time, I may go to an auction system (not Ebay!) but not yet.  So here are today's two studies! 
The first is a loon.  I resist painting loons because they sit so low in the water there's not much bird to paint,.  So in this first study,  I concentrated on interesting colors and brush work in the water.

 

 208 - Loon

SOLD

The second study of the day is an egret.  I've painted quite a few egrets for the 75/75 project so I tried completely different brushwork on this piece.  It looks detailed - and I confess I used a smaller brush - but it didn't take any longer.  I flared out the bristles on a #6 round watercolor brush to paint it - and rather like the effect.  It's softer.  I can see using this technique for more tonalistic pieces.  

209 - Egret

5" x 7" oil study on board, unframed
$75 plus $6 shipping within the U.S.

SOLD