As much as I love to paint birds in general, there is always some specific detail that makes me hone in on a particular bird. In the case of the Green Finch, it is without question the glorious color combination of olive grey, chartreuse, and bright, acid yellow. I’ve always been fond of green-golds, and this bird sings with colors evocative of new spring growth.

I’ve caught glimpse of Green Finches from my very first visit to the UK in 2012, but I have never had much luck capturing quality references on film. For a while, my UK birder friends told me that the Green Finch population had been badly depleted by a viral infection, and, to be sure, I saw very few during my 2021 trip, and the one that I did observe looked visibly ill. Both the fortunes of the bird and my luck changed during my 2024 visit, and I had very good photo sessions with cooperative and healthy models both at my partner, Guy’s, Mother’s house in Tewkesbury, and at Sculpture by the Lakes, in Dorset. This study is the result, and it positively glows with one of my favorite colors, chartreuse, which- fun fact- is a color actually named after the French herbal liquor, not the other way around!