My gouache piece “Martha” is on display at the Bench Gallery “Pigeon Show” at Fayes in San Francisco through September 10th.
I was excited to participate in this group exhibition because I’ve been a long time birdwatcher (waterfowl, mostly) but had never worked on any bird-related artworks. This gave me the opportunity to focus on something new in terms of painting subjects, but also something I am personally interested and invested in.
This work was inspired by the extinction of the passenger pigeon species. Martha was the last known passenger pigeon, who died in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her remains were preserved and are on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. For more information and a 3D visualization, see: