This piece is a small-scale study for a 30 x 30” version based on an encounter with a flock of Common Redpolls at Coulter Bay in the Winter of 2023. I was in town to photograph elk on the Refuge, but I took this side trip at the recommendation of Pierce Tome of Astoria Fine Art. He’d seen a lot of foxes lately in that area, and, needing a break from elk, I decided to try my luck. I never did see a fox, but I was beyond excited to observe flocks of Redpolls and Grey-Headed Rosy Finches, both birds I’d not seen in person previously. This piece is the second of three paintings inspired by that experience.

Like all of my Pattern Series, which I began exploring in 2015, the animal subject becomes a springboard for the exploration of color and pattern, variation and repetition. Though the background is reminiscent of the snow-covered parking lot where I encountered the bird, there is no attempt here to paint an objective scene. Only two of the birds are painted “realistically,” without stylization, and the rest becomes a pattern meant to suggest, rather than describe, the semi-regimented lines of birds picking away at fallen seeds. This piece is somewhat bittersweet for me, as it is likely one of the very last of this series. I’ve enjoyed these Pattern paintings immensely, but it feels like time to move on to new challenges. The palette of this piece heavily indulges in pinks and violets, my subjectively favorite colors, which feels like an appropriate note on which to end.