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Sunday, July 5, 2015

City Park Pigeonnier

City Park in New Orleans has a house for pigeons called Colombier de Carol. What a nice name!

Colombier de Carol
oil on canvas, 18"x14"

To be honest, I didn't know what the structure was for when I was painting it. The human-sized door was open and some park workers were mowing the grass behind me, so I assumed it was a really fancy storage. Then I realized that this brick hexagon building had 10 small holes on each wall, with tiny wooden balconies for birds to sit on. There was also a plaque that explained how this pigeonnier was donated to the City Park in 1928 by Felix Dreyfous, and was named after his granddaughter Carol. It is located behind the Casino building (where Morning Call coffee stand is) on a small island called, what else, the Pigeon Island.

Although there weren't any pigeons around at that time, I can't imagine how many pigeons might come home to this when the sun goes down. Or maybe they aren't fond of this house and never come home - it looks too clean, doesn't it?