Self portrait with Schiele and Vonnegut by Anne Smerdon

Anne Smerdon, a Brisbane-born artist, has a passion for birds. A fierce advocate, she uses her art to raise awareness about protecting and caring for wild and pet birds.

With an extensive knowledge of bird psychology and body language, Anne aims to help inform people about the complex and often-overlooked minds, personalities and behaviours of birds.

Anne’s self-portrait features her and her beloved pet parrots, Schiele and Vonnegut, in a colourful piece depicting life at home.

‘I wanted to capture what it is like living with two vivacious parrots, particularly at bath time.

‘Keeping the birds out of the bathroom while I painted this from life was challenging. There’s varied shadow directions as I painted at different times of the day to accomodate my birds’ self-imposed schedule. I also had to move the painting out of the bathroom several times a week so they could shower.’

She has written two books and won numerous art prizes. Her birds, Schiele and Vonnegut, have a combined social media following of 400,000.