Work for Birdlife International and widening interests.

Having investigated the beauty and complexity and our recent understanding of the interactions between pollinating insects and flowers, my eyes have been opened to the complexity and diversity of ecosystems around us.

As soon as I met Honey Kohan, and Martin Harper both from Birdlife International and Lisa Lang from “The powerhouse group” from Creative Economics Forum in Brussels, I knew life would get amazing!!

From our discussions I knew I would need to learn very fast about birds so I could fulfil my promise to produce a new artwork for Birdlife International; such an honour. It felt like speed dating, as I needed to see birds in their habitats as well as work from some amazing images so I could create a new artwork within weeks. The team at wildfowl and wetlands trust in Slimbridge were amazing, as were my local nature reserve were on numerous occasions I went at Twilight to hear the Cuckoo and see the Reed warbler being annually hoodwinked. I read Rebirding nearly 3 times and finally got to meet my hero, the extraordinary clear writer Benedict Macdonald; he even said nice kind things about my work, thank you, I hope to meet him again! A highlight of the birding calendar is the Birdfair annually held in Rutland. We invested in a glorious set of binoculars, (with a diagonal back strap that protects the neck when walking for miles.) It now feels there is so much to learn at this perilous time for birds. It was tragic being in touch with wonderful Dave Leech, who is head of ringing and nest recording for the British trust for ornithology, he explained how busy he was with Avian Influenza, a tragic state which is currently threatening winter migrant birds. I finally managed to pull together an image which included as many birds of particular significance and stories at this point. At the end of July I went to the Curwen Print Study Centre to print up eight versions of the print and then was in full on painting mode for a month, just finishing the work in time to be framed and ultimately exhibited.

For Birdlife

Preparing for exhibition at Bristol Botanic Gardens

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An strange and for me rather wonderful year drawing, painting, printing, planning editing out and re-planning different parts of the work from drawings of individual flowers, to trying to learn how to use augmented reality and been lucky enough to work with wonderful Chris Price at Curio Zubr.

https://curio.zubr.co

Learnt how to use a laser cutter and create DXF vector drawings, screen printing with thermochromic ink, working with marvellous John Rowden at the University Science glass department. Throughout I have been working with my very dear kind friend; Terry Jordan who can be seen below, both working on “Temple to Buttercup” which he routed out for me.

Thank you most especially to Dave Lawson, who has been an inspirational and gentle teacher, listened to me prattling on in an excited state, and of course without him this would never have happened.
The whole team have been wonderful and kind, if I name each, it might seem that I’m not grateful to everyone, so thank you all. Nick Wray, curator has been a delight to work with throughout, generous in thought and time showing me special plants of the gorgeous botanical Gardens, which is such a very special place and a huge credit to him.

Below is some of the work that I was working on, not all is in the exhibition, certainly not the bees.

Tools for Gardening

For as long as I can remember and as soon as I could walk, being out in the garden or in the fields close to our house was my favourite place to be.

Looking at how a fern uncoils, or the way the petals in a rose wrap themselves around the stamens and ovary, or lying on a bed of moss has always given me a great deal of  wonder. I’m very grateful that my late parents gave me time and space to do what must’ve seemed to them like very little activity. In this photo you can see I have a spoon in my hand as I liked to dig the garden with it, it must have been frustratingly slow for them to watch. I was given a small bed to grow seeds and was most excited to create a string fence around it, thinking it would keep the weeds off; no chance of course. I remember the joy this red amaryllis given as a Christmas present brought the whole family. It’s amazing isn’t it! What power of growth this flower bulb has.
Nowadays I use beautiful copper tools to work in the garden and they are an absolute joy, plus the powerful philosophy behind these inspirational tools provides food for thought when weeding. They are called Implementations https://www.implementations.co.uk and are one of the most wonderful gifts I have been given by multiple family members. I particularly find the Polux Hoe on the right brilliant for getting straight to the heart of a weed without lifting too much soil around.  We acquired them from my friend Simon Saggers who has the inspirational Guilden Gate Smallholding https://www.guildengate.co.uk in our village.