Julian R. Hough

Needed a bit of a mental health day and checked out into some art. Juvenile Red-necked Phalarope, Hammonasset State Park, CT September 2022.
9" x 12" watercolor on Arches hot press.

Digging through a bin of artistic bits and pieces a while ago, I came across this plate I painted in 2000. Since I didn't really paint much back in those days, this probably represents one of my first authentic attempts at watercolor. It was commissioned to illustrate my article on the Identification of Cliff and Cave Swallows for the excellent, but now sadly defunct, Birding World magazine.

Before I moved to the USA, American gulls (or "seagulls" for non-birders) were highly prized in Britain. I had already seen a vagrant Laughing Gull frequenting Newcastle General Hospital rooftops in 1983/1984, long before they were beach background noise, or opportunistically stealing sandwiches and french fries off tourists' plates while I waited tables in Cape May, NJ.
In 1991 this vagrant, long-staying, first-winter Laughing Gull was seen in Walcot, near Cromer, Norfolk during a Manchester Megalisters annual Norfolk Birds 'n Booze New Year's Weekend. :)

Continuing to grapple with some of the demon qualities of watercolor and rendering bits of habitat! Trying to adopt a more loose style that watercolor demands and let go of my more detailed and tight illustration style - it is a hard habit to unlearn. ☺️


Watercolor #3. "Winter Watcher", Snowy Owl, Stratford, CT 2018. 12" x 9" on Arches Hot Press paper.