little oil painting underway

Its been quite a while since I picked up paint brushes and tried once more to do battle with colour and try and produce a worthy image.I have been very pre-occupied with producing pencil drawings and looking for new,fresh ways to invigorate the drawings and so painting has taken a backseat.to be honest I hadn't really got any plans to do any oils for a while yet but I was inspired to pick up the brushes again after a lovely bright sunshine-filled spring walk along the river Hamble shoreline near my home in warsash.as I walked along the shoreline there were many waders and over-wintering ducks and geese to be seen,and as usual I had my camera with me when the sun came out and illuminated the water and wet mud along with a lovely Lapwing.The birds feathers are iridescent in the sun and the most amazing colours could be seen and so I very quickly grabbed some camera shots before the bird was away.when I got home later that day I checked the images on my computer screen and was blown away by the way my new camera had caught the colours to perfection.The colours were so appealing that I couldn't resist the temptation to dig out my oil paints and see if I could do the image justice.this little painting,with very little in the way of composition is the result of those efforts so far.it has been sitting on an easel in the corner of the studio and in-between pencil drawing ive been working on the water and layed in the underpainting of the mud.after my last drawing I picked up the brushes again as I was suffering from a bit of bloc and made a start on the bird itself.it is slow-going as colour and I don't see eye to eye on many an occasion but I'm happy to plod on with this one and see if I can get my eye back in for some more colour works to come.i hope you like it thus far.