I was quite literally forced to begin painting birds in May of 2023 by the most charming male cardinal that decided to build his nest in my garden. April had just passed, and with it the one-year anniversary of my shih-tzu’s death, when out of nowhere a very loud, ever-present male cardinal was making himself known to me throughout the day. Every day. 

 

We are no strangers to backyard birds and have our fair share of chickadees, house finches, blue jays, cardinals, etc. But this particular male cardinal was special. I heard his song throughout the day. He made himself very comfortable on the branch right outside my window, and sometimes, I could have sworn he was staring at me. He’d sit on my patio table and sing so loudly I was forced to stop what I was doing. He urged me to stop, to watch.

 

He became such a presence that I was reporting about him daily to friends and family and taking pictures. Eventually, my husband found he had built a nest in a holly bush outside our back door. We realized he was celebrating his future family and chose our garden as its residence.

 

I started to feel he was a part of our lives. I had been grieving our little dog throughout that year, and here was this bright, beautiful creature saying, “snap out of it!” And I did exactly that. I decided to take a break from painting owls and try my hand at this guy. Using bright reds was such a departure from painting the muted-colored owls, I reveled in it. This bird even had a theme song. Something I heard on the radio sounded to me like this little fella so it became his theme song: John Rutter’s Suite Antique.

 

For at least a few more weeks, we watched the cardinal guard our garden: chasing jays away and making sure no other bird trespassed too long. In the summer, we had to leave for a couple of weeks and upon our return, the nest was empty. There was a male cardinal around but the celebration seemed to be gone. I’m certain it wasn’t the same one.

 

Looking back, I was pleased with my initial attempt to paint the cardinal, and decided I really enjoyed painting birds just as much as owls. Thus, I began my new series, and my new life after grief.

​Susan