Magpies in space :)

Cosmos - Acrylic, collage and Gold leaf 30 x 40 canvas

So right now you're thinking I don't understand...Magpies in space? Well there is a little story behind the inspiration for this one. We have a family of Maggies that frequent our backyard and they have become quite tame. They are all recognizable by their markings and so of course they all end up with nicknames :) The male Maggies have very clean sharp markings, their backs are always pure white. The females are a bit scruffier and instead of white backs they have black with various white markings. Mostly these look a little bit like lace, and some have less, some have more. Last year though, a new female turned up and she was almost pure black except for the usual white marking on the back of the neck that they all have and some tiny little white spots on her back which looked just like stars. So I started calling her Cosmos. She turned out to be a real character and would hang around whenever we where outside, almost like she enjoyed the company. Cosmos raised a couple of babies this spring and then promptly went back to wherever she came from (apparently it's not uncommon for females to move sometimes, I suppose to prevent in-breeding) Anyway, her babies now hang out in our yard and one of them has very similar markings. So she now has the very imaginative name of Cosmos' baby :) Hence...Magpies in space, I'm sure that really cleared thing up :) Cheers