The Birds Soaring High As They Fly From The Tree by British contemporary artist Danny O’Connor is one of five paintings inspired by the artist’s poem on freedom, with each work taking its title from an individual line. Three female faces overlap across the composition, led by a central figure whose direct gaze anchors a dense field of colour, pattern and movement.

Two hummingbirds appear within the painting: one vividly coloured and immediately recognisable, the other more delicately rendered and partially absorbed into the surrounding layers. Hummingbirds are often associated with freedom, resilience, adaptability and joy, making their presence particularly resonant with O’Connor’s poem. Their agile flight strengthens the title’s image of leaving the tree as a metaphor for release and independence. Against the three overlapping female faces, the birds introduce a sense of movement beyond the self, while the surrounding botanical and organic motifs connect the figures, birds and natural world.

Radiating bands of cobalt, turquoise, magenta, ochre and cream cut through the softer painted surface, creating a strong sense of movement and outward expansion. Through contemporary portraiture, bird imagery, figurative art and expressive abstraction, O’Connor turns the poem’s image of birds leaving the tree into a visual metaphor for independence, transformation and moving beyond familiar boundaries.

The Birds Soaring High As They Fly From The Tree is an original, one-of-one large-format mixed media painting on canvas, 122 × 152 cm, available through Eclectic Gallery, Fitzrovia, London. To enquire or arrange a private viewing, contact the gallery.

The Poem Behind the Paintings

The Poem Behind the Paintings

This work is one of five paintings inspired by a poem written by Danny O’Connor, with each painting taking its title from an individual line:

Freedom’s the flower that grows from the tiniest seed

That deep-rooted sense you don’t want to leave

Unrestrained to think and feel

It’s the birds soaring high as they fly from the tree

Freedom’s within, just set your mind free.