Artwork copyright Nancy Halbrooks. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Bird Quartet, 1998

Nancy Halbrooks
(American, born 1953)

Location: Lydia Hawk Elementary, Lacey

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Bird Quartet is a colorful gouache artwork by artist Nancy Halbrooks. Four small paintings make up the composition. It is a study used to help her arrange and compose her ‘Birds and Trees’ series of 108 oil paintings. Halbrooks installed the series of paintings in a grid at the 1998 Bumbershoot Arts Festival in Seattle. Discussing the inspiration for her bird imagery she notes, “Taking walks by small ponds and in woods I watch the birds and their antics… I find that the visual arrangements the birds make – the patterns of shape and space – wonderful metaphors for connection and community.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with North Thurston Public Schools.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ohio-based artist Nancy Halbrooks creates figurative and abstract oil paintings, drawings, and prints. Many of her artworks feature imagery of birds and explore themes of endurance, adaptation, and community. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1977. She lived in Seattle for 22 years during the 1980s and 90s.