The Warbler
2004
I went to a family cottage for two weeks in the summer (where I spent a lot of time over the course of almost a decade). While there I planned to paint my surroundings, something I almost never take the time to do.
Within a day or two of arriving I found a newly dead warbler in the grass (my guess is it had flown into a nearby window). For the remainder of my stay I painted the bird each day, using little sheets of tinted paper, watercolour and gouache. I stored it on a shelf in a paper bag in the boathouse.
It was the most gratifying painting I’ve experienced to date. And it was the first time I’d focused to such a degree on fine detail.
Jennifer Waters, painting, still life, Parsons, The New School, MFA, text, art, artist
