Another favourite finch is the adorable yellowhammer. I just love yellow! And the way they lift their little heads up to sing in the Spring! They seem to epitomise that bright, new sunny feeling of things coming alive again after a long Winter.

For this piece I used a background of recycled upholstery velvet which was really thick to stretch over the canvas when it came to finishing it off. I won’t be doing that again in a hurry!
I also used a piece of vintage floral cotton to appliqué for the body of the bird to give it a meadow field impression. I embroidered the velvet with some pre-programmed stitches. These are my “go to” quilting stitches that look a little bit like grass stalks. And then I created some umbel type flowers with chain stitch or the stalks and lots and lots of tiny flower shaped sequins all sewn on by hand with monofilament thread.

I don’t think I will ever get tired of yellowhammers, not in art or in real life. Long may they sing in the hedgerows!

This piece is now in a private collection. If you would like to commission something similar then please get in touch alternatively, check out the current work for sale in my shop.

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