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A Collection of Rare Birds

Eight feathers, eight barrels of 16-year bourbon

Painted forSubtle Spirits

Subtle Spirits named eight single barrels of bourbon for eight birds, and asked me to paint a feather for each label. Each barrel was aged sixteen years and two months and bottled at cask strength.

All eight are part of my 500 Feathers project now, and you can bring home a print of any of them.

See the eight feathersThe bourbon, at Subtle Spirits
The eight bottles of A Collection of Rare Birds in a row, each labelled with one of Shayna’s watercolor feathers: Quail, Starling, Cardinal, Turkey, Kingfisher, Hummingbird, Macaw and Mallard.

The eight feathers

Each one’s page has its prints, in every size.

My 500 Feathers project turned personal after my dad died in 2021. He and I used to share a glass of whiskey.

So having my feathers on a whiskey bottle feels like a wink from the universe, as if he’s still right here, raising his glass with us.

Shayna’s brush on the Quail feather, half painted in grey and ochre watercolor

Painted to wrap a bottle

A label meant picturing each feather wrapped around a bottle, which was new for me. I studied each bird and what it stands for, and brought the precision of my larger wildlife paintings into the loose, watery style of my feathers.

Each is a 5 × 10 inch watercolor on cotton paper, mounted on a wood panel, with metallic paint for the shimmer of a real feather. Subtle Spirits owns the eight originals. Prints of every one are on its page here.

The shimmer, in foil

The metallic paint was the hard part to print, because ink doesn’t shimmer. Subtle Spirits had the unvarnished originals photographed at three exposures to separate how each one catches the light, then printed that layer as holographic foil over the ink.

Turn a bottle in your hand and its feather goes from muted to iridescent, the way the painting does.

The release

A Collection of Rare Birds, at Subtle Spirits Their interview with me
Paintings
8 watercolors, 5 × 10 in each
Paper
Saunders Waterford High White, 100% cotton, on wood panel
Bourbon
8 single barrels, aged 16 years 2 months, cask strength
Bottles
738 in all, from 35 to 134 a barrel
Labels
Printed ink under a holographic foil
Collector Edition
5 sets: all eight bottles, with a signed, numbered print of each feather

Bottle photographs courtesy of Subtle Spirits.