If you feed the birds in your garden you will have noticed that Chaffinches usually prefer to feed on the ground, in this picture I have painted the female sorting through fallen leaves in a patch of sun on the mossy woodland floor while the more brightly coloured male bird is perched in the ivy above. After sketching and photographing the birds, I recreated the scene back in my studio by collecting Ivy, leaves and sticks etc, so that I could really get the detail right. This painting took several weeks to paint and I was really pleased that I think I managed to capture the gentle look in the eye of the female and all the colours of their lovely plumage.