Sculpture of Three Parakeets in F Minor, made entirely from piano parts, with acrylic paint.

The piano keys that the birds are perched on are made from a Beckhardt Berlin upright (1920) and are arranged in an F minor chord shape. The birds are made from various piano parts from the same piano, that was in disrepair and saved from landfill.

I used some Bechstein blue cloth from a piano restoration project on the tails.

The ringneck parakeet has the widest natural distribution of any parrot. As a feral brid, it’s also found in parts of Europe and North America.

Urban lore says that the many colourful parakeets that fly wild around London come from a breeding pair called Adam and Eve that Jimi Hendrix released on Carnaby Street in the 1960s.

The F minor chord is a favourite among musicians for its moody, melancholic sound. Each bird is perched on a different note of the chord, with the front bird, in a more animated pose, sitting on the minor third, the note that gives the chord its distinctive dark quality.

Price: This piece is exclusively available at The Black Swan Arts Open.