Bird by Bird – The Blueprint of an Emerging Artist

Posted by Brandi Moody on 8 February 2011 | 4 Comments

While attending one of Raleigh’s First Fridays, I was lucky enough to be introduced to Janelle Howington’s magical series of birds.

I remember walking by her studio and seeing about 20 or so small paintings on the wall. I instantly became a fan of her work. 

At that time she had an art studio inside 311 West Martin Street Galleries and Studios, located in downtown Raleigh, but has since moved into her new studio in Artspace. Howington is the Regional Emerging Artist in Residence at Artspace, which gives her a studio rent-free for six months. 

Howington is a Raleigh native, but she moved away years ago for school. She started college as music major at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, but upon her sophomore year, and with a little persistence from her parents to take art classes, her path changed and Howington absolutely “fell in love” with art. 

Howington jokes that she excelled in her drawing and painting classes but “was an absolute failure at sculpture.” She earned her BFA in painting and moved to Boston to earn her MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in conjunction with Tufts University. 

She took a couple of years off after graduate school and slowly found her way back to painting. Her first goal was to get a studio space to work in (which she has held at 311 for the past couple of years). Now, Howington says she’s excited about her new studio at Artspace, where she already has a wall full of her painted birds. 

Howington says she first started creating birds as a way to warm up her painting style each morning. What was a typical method turned into a passion for these little creatures. With each stroke of her paintbrush, Howington creates an individual personality and character for each bird. Some are still and silent, others powerful and strong, and some even float across the paper leaving only trails of color behind. Recently Howington started painting a series of hummingbirds where she layers two birds, creating a sense of motion. 

“Birds are so elusive and difficult to capture," she says. "There is such an ethereal quality to them, a certain type of magic.” To make sure her birds are accurate in proportion and species, she uses a series of bird books as reference. 

“I like painting fleeting moments and birds contain something that’s unattainable,” Howington adds. Her one-of-a-kind paintings range in price from $40 for a small, unframed work to $60 for a wood-mounted creation. 

Along with Howington’s flock of birds, she is also an accomplished portrait artist. She recently did a show at 311 where she exhibited paintings of her mother and father. What I love most about her paintings is that they are much larger than typical portraits. For example, the painting of Howington's mother is more than 5 feet tall, demanding attention in a non-overwhelming way.

There is an intimacy within Howington’s work — one that is illustrative and dreamlike. The faces she captures are not tied to the restrictions set by typical portraits, but instead come to life and breathe in fragments of color.

While she is at Artspace, Howington says she plans to create more of her bird series. To date she estimates she has created more than 200, with each piece finding a home in private collections across the country. I am lucky enough to own six of Howington’s paintings — two being larger bird portraits on wood and four being a series of smaller paintings on paper. I’m not the only one that falls in love with Howington’s paintings; everyone that visits asks "Who created those fabulous birds?"

To see more of Janelle’s work and to visit her studio in person, please visit her website and Artspace for more information.

All photos by Brandi Moody.

Brandi Moody is an artist and designer living in Raleigh. By day she’s a graphic designer and illustrator for her own design studio. Read more about her life, work and inspiration on her blog, Ever So Lovely.