Inspired by an image in an old RSPB magazine, this painting aims to capture the movement and colours of the kingfisher. The azure blue, orange and white we all associate with this magical creature is in fact an iridescent spectrum that transforms on the turn of the wing.

…’a flying furnace of reckless colours’ as described by Simon Barnes in his book The Meaning of Birds.

In The Uccelliera or ‘The Aviary’ a seventeenth-century treatise attributed to the Italian Giovanni Pietro Olina we discover that many called the ‘Fisher Bird’ Piombino, that is the Plummet or Plumb-bob. In latin it is called ISPIDA.

The cormorants and swans are making themselves at home on the lake. No beavers or Narwhals yet! With very best wishes for the season.

Anima – the soul or animating principle of a living thing

Using home made cyanotype as a ground, abstract shapes appear around the ghostly forms of oak leaves, feathers and acorns. The ‘jayness’ of the bird is introduced using plumage colours in fleeting glimpses to represent the elusive creature that nurtures and propagates our oak forests.

Hope reflected in mirrored hours…

Night and day pivot as new lives beckon

Cautious emergence as buds to bloom

Twig by twig we rebuild…

Noticing nature has sustained many of us throughout the experience of Lockdown.   As we cautiously emerge and society returns we must consider doing things differently if we want nature to be there for us in the future.   This tiny Chiff-Chaff wouldn’t normally be seen in the garden but it enjoyed the experience feasting on the blackfly while it was there…

As I look out of the newly created, man-made, sterile landscape at the front of the house I notice four social distancing Greylag Geese.  The pandemic pause in construction has allowed nature to take the lead and given us time to notice. Transforming farmland into housing estates may feel wrong but if we can allow nature to do what it does best and fill in some gaps on its own rather than expecting it to populate contrived plots designated by developers, life can be much improved and we may learn a thing or two.  In the last few weeks we have all noticed the bright blue skies, the sound of birdsong and the trees putting on their mantle of green as we take our daily walk.  Lets build on this now and give nature space to breathe so that we all can.

After the storm…

…the willow weeps for its severed bough

Leaves, like memories, pave the ground

The sun will return and wounds will heal

Respect Restore Revive Live on…

…avian arguments for a better world

at the Oxmarket Gallery,  Chichester  PO19 1YH

12th -24th February 2019