Notes on the painting 'Gift'

This painting is more curious than many of my paintings. I almost always work from life when painting and this one is an example. When I am looking for subjects to paint, I often look to see what I may have otherwise not noticed as extraordinary. Today I woke up wondering what the painting would be and before even getting up, I saw the cast shadow of a bird that had just landed on a wire outside the window which had a translucent curtain still down. How amazing, as I had never seen a bird on the wire with the curtain up or down and that the painting appeared without any effort on my part - a nice gift first thing in the morning!