Artwork copyright Nancy Halbrooks. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Six Crows, 2001

Nancy Halbrooks
(American, born 1953)

Location: Granite Falls Middle School, Granite Falls

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Six Crows is a pastel and charcoal drawing by artist Nancy Halbrooks. It is part of her body of paintings and drawings exploring the relationships between birds. She notes that these artworks are “Inspired by the stark structures of the winter trees and the silhouettes of the birds in the trees… In this drawing I pushed the size and scale of these crows to dramatize their shapes and the shape of space between the birds. I abstracted the shapes, reducing them to black shapes evoking, I hope, the essence of the character of these lively birds and their strong connections to one another.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Granite Falls School District.

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.