Sarah Birtles Art + Advice is delighted to open 2025 with the highly-anticipated annual release from Fiona Smith. Following her immensely successful sold out exhibitions in February 2023 and 2024, this internationally-collected artist returns with a new collection of avian characters entitled Strangers in Paradise.

“The collection came from a conversation I had in Paris a few weeks ago,” Fiona shared. “I was there to look at décor for future paintings and caught up with Olivier – a constant friend since we first met, working at the Pasadena hotel and restaurant in Church Point when I was just 19. 

Olivier tells me how some Indian ring-necked parrots escaped from captivity and bred in the City of Light. Now, up to 20,000 of the emerald birds are sharing the parks with astonished humans.

It got me thinking about adaptability and how we can make anywhere our home, even when we seem out of place. What can be commonplace in one location, becomes exotic in another. In my paintings, all the birds are visitors who have settled in to share our spaces.”