Artists’ birds grab attention at Caffery

• By ANNE PRICE
• Advocate arts critic
• Published: Oct 25, 2009

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A dramatic display of bird art, Mostly Birds, at Caffery Gallery grabs and holds the attention of fascinated viewers.

Dixon Smith’s name is enough to bring bird lovers to the show, and they will not be disappointed. Big, glamorous flying creatures of the Louisiana skies fish in the water or fly high in the sky in colorful splendor in her paintings.

She does have one group picture, and the subjects don’t fly. It’s a trio of turtles clinging to a single big stone and they are great. They look stolid and settled, but also ready for action at a moment’s notice, ready to leap right back into the water where their perch is located.

The turtles are cute, but it is the birds that capture the most attention. One huge black bird nestles against a bright red siding. Graceful white birds soar through the sky, their wingspread seeming to cover the heavens.

Smith is a talented painter, and her personal devotion to the beautiful birds of Louisiana brings life and action to her extremely competent technical skill.

Smith is joined in this remarkable show by photographer Jim Bolner Sr., whose images are so correctly splendid that they might as well be portraits. One image is a sunset view of birds sitting on the pilings of a bridge overlooking a body of water. The birds are dark outlines above the vivid glow of sunset, with the last rays of sunshine reflected in the water below.

Bolner has captured the perfect moment of drama before the dark takes over the world.

It’s not often you see two artists with almost identical devotion to the same subject. Here we have two such artists, and they are working together. That’s something you really don’t often see, and Baton Rouge fans have a unique opportunity to enjoy the powerful talents of two influential artists whose work together becomes an icon to the contribution of Louisiana’s birds to the awesome beauty of the state.