Boreal Birds

Boreal Birds is an ongoing series of paintings in which I am exploring the common birds of Interior Alaska and the Boreal Forest. I completed the first series for a First Friday show in 2021 and have continued making several other paintings since then. I enjoy the contrast of painting the birds themselves in a realistic style and then juxtaposing them against a stylized background to make their features further stand out. For many of us, I think that birds are some of the few wild animals we can count on seeing every single day (while others are much more illusive). I therefore think there’s a lot we can gain from building a relationship with and knowledge of our bird neighbors! For me, part of building that relationship is painting them, and in doing so I learn more about their physical traits, habitat, and character.