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People practice yoga with animals all the time in real life, but it is only in the tenderly painted worlds of Lucia Heffernan that you can see a yellow chick folding into a successful triangle pose. The graphic designer and oil painter captures baby birds stretching into a variety of poses in her series of Yoga Chick paintings.
Heffernan creates these delightfully humorous situations by using her realistic style to depict unrealistic scenarios. Each bird is placed against a stage-like backdrop of blue and yellow, which emphasizes the action of the subject. The juxtaposition of a carefully rendered chick as it stands on its head is what makes these tiny portraits so enjoyable to look at. “Through my paintings, I seek to give animals a voice and a personality, while making light of our uniquely human existence,” Heffernan explains on her website.
“By imagining what might do if put in human situations, I stage tableaus that shine a spotlight on both their innocence and raw instinct,” she adds. Even though the birds may be engaged in human activities, they still look like normal chicks would and retain a serious expression the entire time. “This collision between animal and human sensibilities creates a whimsical, theatrical, and often humorous world that viewers can relate to on an emotional level,” Heffernan explains.
Though the original paintings from this series have already been sold, you can purchase prints and other merch via Heffernan's Etsy shop, and find more original art for sale on her website.
Artist Lucia Heffernan creates realistic oil paintings of yellow chicks practicing yoga poses.
