Hanging Robin

In response to the prompt to paint an ugly subject in a beautiful way, I painted a dead Robin that had been hanging in a tree on my friend’s street for a month or so. I chose the Robin not because it was particularly grotesque; from the ground it looked more or less like a puffed ball of feathers. I thought it was ugly because it seemed cruel that it had to hang there with its leg caught rather than rest in death. I wanted to give it an air of tragedy in its stillness, portraying it as Ophelia’s body was painted.

Oil on Canvas, 2020