"Wetland" Watercolor on Yupo at the Riversea Gallery

Recently at my opening at Riversea Gallery, I tried to make note of some of the questions and comments from the patrons in attendance. One question  I’ve heard before that came up was “What’s with the Birds?”  I guess this is as good a time as any to address that question.

I can’t remember a time when I was not attracted to birds. As a shy, introspective child I would sit apart on the school bus and stare out at the hedgerows and trees, searching for nests for the entire torturous duration of the ride. On visits to the garden center I hovered near the pet aisle, breathing in the happy chatter of the budgies and canaries and marveling at their brilliant color. They always seemed so exotic to me. I found peace and solitude walking  in the fields and forests, observing the redwing blackbird in the marshes, the raptors hunting over the grasslands, the goldfinches fluttering in bursts of brilliant energy on my grandmother’s dandelion studded lawn.

I’ve been a hobbyist birdwatcher, waiting each year for the return of the wild swans to the wetlands, marveling at the loud plumage of the Evening Grosbeaks, searching the cherry tree for the Cedar Waxwings dropping pits on the ground.  Each seasonal visit from the more unusual species kept me wondering where they came from, how far they traveled, what their winters or summers were like. My favorite perch as a child was a small bench in the crotch of the enormous cedar tree, away from the clatter and noise of our busy household.

When I began to develop as a painter, my initial focus was on still life. Many of my early paintings included bird imagery. Birds were a part of my daily life, watching them indoors and out… at various periods I kept a canary, a parakeet who learned a large vocabulary and a cockatiel. But I also loved the symbolism that birds offered, the allusions to literature or music offered by a blackbird vs. a canary. As I transitioned into a figure painter, birds showed up in even the earliest paintings.

Is it necessary for me to explain what the birds in my paintings mean to me, or is it enough that they hold significance and symbolism? In some cases, I don’t know. I only know that I feel compelled to include them. In general, I feel that when I include a bird in a figure painting, it allows the figure to be content with their solitude. The bird’s presence is voluntary, it is a gift given freely, though possibly fleeting. It reminds us of the beauty of nature, its power, its capricious nature.

The Swan

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?

Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air –

An armful of white blossoms,

A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned

into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,

Biting the air with its black beak?

Did you hear it, fluting and whistling

A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall

Knifing down the black ledges?

And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds –

A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet

Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?

And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?

And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?

And have you changed your life?

– Mary Oliver

This week I had some very good news! My painting “Garden Companions” has been accepted into the California Watercolor Association’s 41st National Exhbition. The show will run July 14 through September 19 at Gallery Concord, 1765 Galindo Ave., Concord, CA 94520, phone (925) 691-6140 for hours. If you’re in the Bay Area, check it out!

"Garden Companions" watercolor on paper 15x22"

If you like birds as much as I do, take a look at the new treasury I put together on Etsy last night… Happy BIRDday to me 🙂 http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=125716