Animals are an integral part of my experience living and working in rural Vermont. I often observe them from a quiet distance—watching from a porch, along a meadow path, or through the woods near my studio. Their presence feels both familiar and mysterious: a fleeting glimpse, a rustle of wings, a call fading into the air.

In this ongoing series, I focus on animals not as literal subjects but as distilled forms—symbols of movement, balance, and awareness. Rather than depicting them with realistic accuracy, I seek to convey their essence through gesture and rhythm. In this painting, three crows occupy the space like notes in a composition, their dark forms anchored in silence yet charged with energy.

The surface evolves through a layered process of painting, scraping, dissolving, and repainting—each action leaving behind traces of history and chance. The resulting texture invites a sense of time and atmosphere, where image and material meet. The walnut frame, finished in a deep ebonized tone, complements the subdued palette of grays and blue-grays, echoing the quiet presence of the birds and the landscape they inhabit.