My inspiration for this painting began by watching the tiny sparrows in our backyard. Their colors are soft browns and rust, and they dart around our backyard and deck in bunches and are always vocal. Flowers in my garden also grab my attention, and these bold coneflowers and iris leaves are an important quiet space in my life. Their vivid magenta and red and pink colors are saturated and their shapes are a natural background for the sparrows. This was painted mostly wet-in-wet, and the birds are almost hidden among the coneflowers. I added some sprinkles of dry pastels into the wet petals, adding a textural interest.  Flowers are a continuing paintable subject matter for me — I wanted to capture their freshness and brilliant colors.