Day 17: Palette Knife Kingfisher — A Daily Bird Painting in Acrylic
Another acrylic bird joins the flock for Day 17 of my daily painting practice. This small painting features a kingfisher, a bird I first discovered during one of my earliest daily painting challenges more than a decade ago.
Back then, I was working mostly on gessoed panels and painting with brushes. Today’s piece was created entirely with a palette knife, embracing thicker texture and looser marks. Fun fact: I tend to use the same size palette knife whether the painting is 4 × 4 inches or 40 × 40 inches—scale changes, but the gesture stays familiar.
If you had told me years ago that I’d still be painting small birds today, I think I would have been surprised. And I also think—and hope—I would have been delighted. There’s something grounding about returning to familiar subjects, especially birds, while letting the tools and process evolve.
This kingfisher feels like a quiet marker of continuity: a reminder that daily practice doesn’t always mean moving on to something new—it can also mean going deeper.
Do you find yourself returning to the same subjects over time, or does repetition feel more like comfort—or curiosity—to you?
Denise Hopkins
January 17, 2026
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