During a trip to Barbados, I became fascinated with the attitude and body language of grackles. These intelligent members of the blackbird family caught my eye while I was sitting at the bar, watching World Cup Soccer, and enjoying Mount Gay Rum.While the grackles were enjoying whatever food fell to the ground or was left unattended, I was drawn by their feistiness and the contrast between their iridescent blue feathers and striking golden eyes.

The birds were the inspiration for two paintings, “Three Little Birds” and “The Grackle,” but their influence on my art goes beyond these works.  I needed a background color that would set off the blue/violet of their feathers; while yellow is purple’s complementary color, I needed a yellow that wouldn’t detract from the birds’ bright yellow eyes. I turned to Naples Yellow, a color that was originally derived from the soil of Mt. Vesuvius or Naples, Italy.  Naples yellow has become a regular support color in my paintings since these early experiments.

I n “The Grackle,” I tried to capture the bird’s bold nature; completely comfortable with humans, they have no reservations about landing on your table and making off with whatever food they can.“Three Little Birds” features a trio of these highly social birds and takes its title from the Bob Marley song. The song title’s origin remains disputed by many, but is at least partly inspired by actual birds he was fond of that used to fly up to the windowsill of his home in the Jamaican mountains.  Another thought is that the title refers to the three female singers from his reggae group, one of whom he married. The circles on this painting are a reference to the brightly colored flowers that many islanders plant around their doors or paint on their homes.  Like Naples Yellow, these dots have had a lasting influence on me and became part of my logo.

Rum, music, and very cool birds with yellow eyes brought about some great memories and paintings that I really enjoy and hope you will, too.