Kyrie Eleison

I love to feed the cardinals and doves that come into the courtyard. So I throw a little bird seed out the door every day and I can watch  them as I am in my studio painting. The busy little chattering wrens scurry through the ferns and plants to find a bug or two. I have watched parent birds building nests in my ferns.. Usually in the Spring I get to see little ones learning  to fly. The painting above came from my imagination as I could see the birds flying into the ferns with twigs and leaves building their nest, then gradually bringing insects and food to the little ones. Yet I could never see the little ones until they came out of the nest to fly. I have printed note cards of the painting and the following is the explanation on the back of the card.

"Outside the artist's window was a mother bird going in and out of a hanging fern basket. Apparently she was feeding little ones. Inspired by this sight, Kyrie Eleison evolved on the artist's canvas. The little birds seem to be crying out to be fed. "Kyrie Eleison" or "Lord have mercy," a refrain of an ancient litany."