This quote by Monet reminded us of our paintings of birds and how their voices had in turn inspired us many times. Over the years we have painted small and big, noisy and quiet not forgetting the colourful and conversely even the unobtrusive birds that have come into our line of vision. Our latest bird painting is called “The Tree creeper” and was inspired by a real interaction. They don’t sing exactly, but it’s arguable their idiosyncratic walk straight up and down the trunk is really what they are about and that journey is what we have tried to catch. Tree creepers have no fear of humans so it was possible to get very close to the subject of our painting and if it had spoken our language it may have said “you’ll never get far walking on the horizontal”, the look in it’s eye was certainly doubtful of the choices humans make. Back to Monet’s quote… does it actually make sense? Well the answer is almost certainly yes if your painting is about beauty and urgency, but doesn’t perhaps chime so serendipitously if your painting isn’t territorial or an ode to a warning of danger. Perhaps the quote should be upended and read instead “I’d like to sing the way a bird paints”? We’d be very satisfied if our brushes sang on the paper whilst recording the stories birds paint in their elliptical, aerial and of course vertical lines. We’ll keep on painting the birds we see, it’s the gift they give us.