My Kettle of Hawks Painting Has Left My Nest

Why put hawks on a kettle in a painting?

Because language did it first.

A “kettle of hawks” is already in motion — a phrase that spirals upward, describing raptors circling in the sky. I wanted to capture that restlessness in paint. So instead of peaches in a bowl, I staged an unstill life in my Kettle of Hawks painting: hawks perched precariously on a battered kettle, teetering at the edge of flight. Pre-flap. Pre-screech. Pre-boil.

Where steam ought to rise, wings hover. Where heat hums in a kitchen, the birds hold their breath. Containment sparring with ascent, hush against heat. That’s what this painting asks: what if you could trap motion in a vessel not meant to hold it?

The Painting Itself

A Kettle of Hawks by Kellie Raines

A Kettle of Hawks is acrylic on Ampersand board — chosen for its subtle resistance, a surface that pushes back just enough to make brush and paint feel alive. I built it up in layers: impasto pulled with palette knives, bristle brushwork scumbled and scratched, glazed blues shifting between nocturnal and electric.

The result is a texture you can almost hear. I paint the way I edit audio — constructing rhythm, pulling it apart, leaving behind the echoes. The scrape marks remain on the board the same way voices linger in my recordings: proof that something breathed there.

Storytelling in Stereo

This painting isn’t just an image; it’s part of a duet. On my podcast A Gather of Gatherings, you can hear a kettle of hawks: the rush of wings, the whirl of thermals, the etymology that carries the phrase through time. On canvas, the scene condenses: pigment instead of pitch, cobalt sky swapped for kitchen teal, the hawks balanced on the rim like a suspended note. Together, ear and eye create a stereo story.

Headed to the Auction Block

Art Intake Day, when I delivered my painting to PBS KVIE for the 2025 art auction.

I’m thrilled to share that PBS KVIE has accepted my painting, A Kettle of Hawks, into the 2025 PBS KVIE Art Auction. I’ve contributed many times before, and it’s always an honor to see my work help raise support for public television. Now more than ever, with federal funding eliminated, it's crucial to support public media in my community. Later this year, you’ll be able to bid, take the kettle home, and give flight to both art and PBS in one gesture. You can watch the live auction on October 2–5 on air on PBS KVIE and online at kvie.org/artauction if streaming is your thing. Might you be the one to bid on my kettle of hawks and give it a new nest? And fun fact: I was inspired to start my collective nouns podcast because of a Nature episode on PBS KVIE called, "A Murder of Crows."

What’s Next

Episode 1 of A Gather of Gatherings is available, where language, birds, brushstrokes, and more collide. And the next group has slithered in — A Rhumba of Rattlesnakes has found its way to episode 2 and is winding its way onto canvas soon.

Until then, may your metaphors stay airborne, your kettles stay whistling, and your imagination keep circling back for another lift.

🎧 Listen to the Kettle of Hawks episode now at Buzzsprout.

P.S. Support PBS and other public media in your community!