A journalist and writer, I began painting about ten years ago to honor my wedding shoes, a pair of pearlescent Bruno Magli’s worthy of a princess. I had gotten divorced and I wanted to commemorate them before giving them away. I took out paper and colored pencils, and so it began.
Perhaps because my lifelong nickname is Birdie, birds were my first subject and my first training ground. Then, chickens came into my life. I liked the idea of experiencing bonding with animals who are so dissimilar from us, and, unlike cats and dogs, feel relatively foreign.
As my chicks grew, I studied them and grew to love them — the warmth of their waddles, the coolness of their toes, the uniqueness of their crests; their fantastic color, their personalities, and their very individual way of being, looking, and relating to others. And I started painting them.
Painting is an expression of what I see of the world. It is, for me, an act of meditation, contemplation, and celebration, and I rarely have as much fun doing anything else. But I particularly love painting these animals because I believe they have an inner world that, too small for us, and free of ego, we neglect.
But, as you can see from my paintings, their inner world can fill a room with color, life, and beauty.
My paintings hang in houses in Charleston, New York City, California, Germany, and Italy.
I grew up in a little town in Tuscany. I am a graduate of Yale University and Columbia University.
Questions or comments? Please contact me at sybil@sybilspaintings.com. And thank you for your interest in my work.