pigeons & Doves

Leah Gardner, a Chicago-based contemporary artist, is best known for her quiet but vibrant still-life paintings and endearing pigeon portraits. With careful detail and saturated color, Leah breathes life into ordinary scenes, offering a fresh perspective on nature and commonplace scenes alike.

Leah finds most of her inspiration in light and the way it interacts with its surroundings. She aims to harness light’s ephemeral nature to alter perceptions, evoke emotions, and capture the essence of fleeting moments in her work.

My lifelong love of pigeons has resulted in this series of bird studies. As a child, I’d follow them around and try to feed and befriend them. Nothing has changed, except now I take their photos and paint them too!