Tropical Toucan Painting

I have had no formal training and therefore my art is purely my perception and interpretation of what I see with my eyes and also in my imagination. I am inspired by the beauty and majesty of nature and the child within me is inspired by the fantasy world which is why apart from animals and flowers, I also love to paint whimsical characters and sometimes the two cross over. I usually photograph a creature in a cage or zoo and then I paint them in a beautiful ideal world. By doing this I paint what I want to see, i.e. free and surrounded by safety and beauty, not the reality. A world I love to live in. I usually see something in my every day life that suddenly gives me an idea. Then through visualisation I am able to see in my mind what the painting will look like. As the painting progresses, other ideas may come to me, but usually the image I see at first in my head is the one that appears on the canvas. I have used oils, Caran D'Ache pencils, charcoals and watercolours in the past. But now my favourite medium is acrylics on canvas.