Do your Best 2

The Sparrow collection came into being during the 10 Day challenge hosted by the Pastel Society of the West Coast. The challenge was to learn from the works of famous artists by borrowing their style or copying their artwork while adding our own personal twist to it. My personal twist to the story was adding a resilient sparrow to each of these paintings and bring a message with it. Some of these are reproductions of Monet and Degas while others are from my own reference pictures.

Here's the story...It was a summer morning in Hawaii and Moses and I were enjoying coffee and banana bread at Starbucks, Kihei. A little sparrow was flitting near our table looking for crumbs under it, happily chirping and it seemed as all was perfect in it's little world when suddenly my eyes fell on it's leg.One of it's leg had no feet and I could notice its discomfort while hopping. I wondered if it had been an injury that had caused it, I  wondered what pain it must have gone through. Still there it was, chirping, hopping and bringing joy and beauty to the world.
This painting is a study of one of Degas paintings with the little sparrow cheering the ballerina to keep doing her best.