One of the things I love most about spring is watching all the spring birds come back for the season.
I always love painting birds because they feel so much like home to me. Home is the place where we sit and watch the birds. Birds are a common thread throughout my life - watching hummingbirds squeezed in beside my grandma, my Opa's cement birds he would make lined up in his shop, my college besties and I called ourselves the three little birds, the Ann Wood bird cake toppers my husband and I had for our wedding, my kids yelling at me to come quick to see a cool bird at the feeder. Birds are tied to so many of my warmest memories.
I had previously painted birds in a larger scale on cotton paper, then on smaller squares of raw canvas. In this season's iteration, I wanted to paint more birds on larger canvases.
Every birthday and Christmas, my kids always get me a new tube of paint. Most recently, they've been tubes of yellows and browns (like cad yellow light and burnt sienna) because they wanted me to paint yellow birds and brown birds. The neighbourhood chickadees and sparrows have been keeping us entertained the most lately, so they feature very prominently in this collection.
I really love painting impressionist subjects over energetic and colourful abstract pieces. It's like finding the glimmers in the chaos of everyday life.
My new collection of spring birds is ready to fly into your homes.
