With the Eagles’ home opener against the Dallas Cowboys just days away, one local artist is flying high — preserving the team’s iconic status through a soaring symbol: the bald eagle.
Hayden Richard, a Chester-based painter, began a bold piece long before the Eagles lifted the Lombardi Trophy — envisioning a massive bald eagle bringing the championship home.
“This big bald eagle is coming home,” Richard said, spreading his arms like wings. “Before the Eagles won the Super Bowl, I started painting this.”
There are no players, no stadium, no fans in the frame — just strength, pride, and freedom embodied in the bird itself.
Richard layered the background with his fingers, then shifted to stippling — a meticulous technique using tiny dots of paint to build texture and depth.
“Think of all those leaves, one by one — whoosh,” he laughed, slipping into a line of song: “Don’t worry about a thing… every little thing gonna be alright.”
His “All States” series celebrates American landscapes — from towering redwoods to protective mama bears — a love letter to the country’s beauty.
After losing his job as a chef when Crozer Medical closed, Richard returned to his first love: art.
“I felt connected with the Creator… and art is like creation,” he said.
He’s also the author of The True Awakening of the Mind, a book that mirrors the spiritual artistry he’s carried since childhood. Richard started drawing at age 7 in his native Trinidad, sketching in the earth with coconut branches. Today, his pieces hang on official walls back home.
Closest to his heart is a body of work he calls the Colorless Collection.
“There’s no black and white,” Richard said. “We’re one human family.”
He describes the series as a way to unite people — beyond skin tones and team colors. “The one color we all share is red,” he said, “The blood that connects us.”
And when it comes to Philly, there’s another connection close to home: Bird Nation.
Richard is holding the bald eagle painting for what he calls “Eagles royalty.”
“I’m hoping the owner of the Eagles — and Mr. Hurts and the rest of the team — will contact me and buy the paintings,” he said, with a laugh that lingers in the studio.
