Textures – SOLD

Frances’s Inspiration: “Whilst on a guided bird photography tour in September 2025 to the incredible State of Western Australia, I was immediately captivated by the stunning glowing colour of the Rufous Treecreeper and knew that on my return home they were going to be one of the first birds painted. You can’t paint a treecreeper without a tree and I sifted through my many photos of Rufous Treecreepers among many species of trees before settling on this particular tree trunk. Not only is it a textural marvel, but it’s a lovely, artistic coincidence that the colours of the bird are reflected in the colours of the trunk itself.

I experimented with a number of portrait formatted ideas, none of which were working. It was only by deciding on a landscape orientation that a compositional idea started to emerge. Small paintings are challenging, in that the subject needs to be large enough to gain the viewer’s attention, whilst still leaving room for some habitat!

This lovely bird in all his russet and grey beauty is a male, as evidenced by his black and white streaked breast. Females are also streaked, but lack the black and white colouring. Rufous Treecreepers are one of only six species of treecreeper found throughout Australia. They are an ancient Australasian passerine group of which all exhibit an undulating flight revealing long broad wing bars. Located in Western Australia to the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, their habitat includes jarrah, karri and other open eucalypt forests and woodlands.”

Original artwork by Frances McMahon