Birds of Paradise

A glossy black bird perches low among a stand of bird-of-paradise flowers, their orange and blue-violet crowns rising sharp against a teal-blue background. Small dark berries cluster beneath its feet, and the bird tilts its head to study one of them, pale eye-ring catching the light against all that dark plumage. Bold outlines trace every leaf and feather, giving the piece a cut-glass, stained-window quality, each shape locked in place like a piece of a mosaic. Even surrounded by that riot of tropical color, the bird stays the calm, watchful center of the composition, in no hurry to move on.