Not long ago I visited Blackbrook Zoo in Staffordshire, and amongst the other animals were many Peacocks in their mating finery, all displaying magnificent long tails.

I was particularly taken by the only white Peacock, and waited for ages until he finally deigned to display his tail to full effect.



It gave me the idea to start a new piece of work in hand-cut papercut.
I envisage painting a background in the colours of the blue/green birds, with a slightly three-dimensional white papercut over the top, showing the colours through the holes.
With so many layers of feathers with "eyes", this is likely to be a long job, and I shall probably work on it in between other paintings - hopefully I shall be finished by the autumn!