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BIRD ART
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| Click on a picture to see a larger version. Most prints are approximately A3, some A4. If you would prefer a special size print, please email me for availability and prices. | ||
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Hmm, nice trill! (Wrens in Foxgloves - Troglodytes troglodytes, Digitalis) FRAMED ORIGINAL AVAILABLE: Code O1108 PRINTS AVAILABLE: Code P1108: A3 Print on Fine Art Paper £30 + £5 postage & packing. |
Whilst taking a short break in my caravan at Incleboro Fields Caravan Club Site, West Runton, Norfolk in May 2010, I decided to go for a quiet walk through the site, taking my camera with me. As I walked I could hear a loud piercing shrill and crept towards the sound. A bulbous little wren was singing his heart out, perched on top of a foxglove! I noticed the sunlight beaming across the scene and immediately wanted to paint a picture! However, in the few seconds it took me to put the camera to my eye, the wren saw me and flitted away out of sight. Nevertheless, I snapped the foxglove and surrounding vegetation and remembered that I had a similar shot of a wren amongst my myriad photographs, and also found another wren piccy, both birds being incumbent to my little wild garden. Thank you to Alan Adams for allowing me to pick his foxgloves. ORIGINAL WATER COLOUR. Completed June 2011. View Framed Original 16" x 21" |
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Canoodling in the Loquats (Golden Orioles, Oriolus oriolus, and Loquats, Eriobotrya japonica)
FRAMED ORIGINAL AVAILABLE: Code O1107 PRINTS AVAILABLE: Code P1107: A3 Print on Fine Art Paper £30 + £5 postage & packing. |
My second work to be featured as 'Picture of the Month' in the Portfolio section of Artists & Illustrators Magazine, October 2011 issue. And also see 'Passion Flower Bits' featured in Portfolio in the March 2010 issue. In my sister's garden, Casa Olivia, Cortijo Grande, Spain, in late May 2011, every morning at dawn we were awoken by the distinctive fluting whistle of Golden Orioles. As we stumbled inelegantly and speedily out of bed, we were lucky to see the birds feasting on the ripe Loquat fruits (Eriobotrya japonica). In between pecking at the fruit they were chasing each other about—obviously prenuptials. We were so lucky that a flock of Orioles stopped off in the valley. The first day of our holiday, we saw 8 birds. By the end of the week there was only a solitary male, so this was ‘right place, right time’! The best place to see Orioles in the UK is Lakenheath Nature Reserve (East Anglia), which I visited once and heard one calling, but never caught a glimpse. Even though they are this beautiful rich yellow, they are extremely difficult to spot amongst the foliage. But what beautiful birds; and loquats make a fine jam! A little poem: CANOODLING IN THE LOQUATS Sunny yellow, blackbird size, The Oriole to England flies to Lakenheath, its favourite spot, though doesn’t pose for photo-shot But escapades in Spain are here, I saw whilst sitting, drinking beer! ORIGINAL WATER COLOUR. Completed August 2011. View Framed Original 22" x 18" |
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Pearly King and Queen (Great Crested Grebes, Podiceps cristatus, amongst Amphibious bistort, Polygonum amphibium ) FRAMED ORIGINAL AVAILABLE: Code O1106 PRINTS AVAILABLE: Code P1106: A3 Print on Fine Art Paper £30 + £5 postage & packing. |
Another ‘right place, right time’. My husband and I were staying at Top Lodge Caravan site and walked around the nature reserve. We stumbled upon a hide and whilst admiring and snapping the wildlife another couple sauntered in. We got talking and discovered that they were professional photographers. I mentioned that we had been out recently on a caravan rally and had taken some pictures of grebes, but that they were not very good because the birds were distant. Many thanks to Jan and Andy of Jandy Photography for letting me use their beautiful imagery, and to Paul Mason for his fabulous stuffed resource ‘Grebey’. ORIGINAL WATER COLOUR. Completed July 2011. View Framed Original 22" x 18" |
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Winter Leaves (Long Eared Owl at Wicken Fen) (Asio otus - previously: Strix otus)
FRAMED ORIGINAL AVAILABLE: Code O1105 |
The idea for this picture came to mind when I attended a caravan rally at Strumpshaw Steam Museum, late May 2009: hubby spent the days looking at steam engines and bygones, and I lost myself in the RSPB Strumpshaw Fen nature reserve. I saw the rippling trails of otters in the water, as they swam just below the surface scanning the waters for their next meal. As I walked back to base I noticed the leaf silhouettes against the lowering sun, and the black, shaded branches. Some leaves had holes and nibbled edges and they looked very 'wintery'. My grateful thanks to Howard Cooper, Communications Officer at Wicken Fen Nature Reserve who confirmed that a long eared owl had been spotted in the nature reserve recently, and he invited me to visit the reserve for further inspiration. The combination of Strumpshaw silhouettes and the old wind pump at Wicken Fen amongst the reeded, fenland landscape enlightened my mind. Although used in the preliminary drawing of this composition, I did not use any of the photographs I had taken when painting it, so the landscape is entirely from my accumulated memories. Many thanks to Paul Mason for lending me his 'Owly', without which I would never have learned that the owl's facial feathers look like wire, his bib is like the soft down pulled from the belly of a mother rabbit when making her nest, and the wing and lower body feathers are so light and delicate, they are like a seed head of a dandelion telling the time - a symbol of possibility, hope, and dreams; and those eyes…. ORIGINAL WATER COLOUR. Completed May 2011. View Framed Original 22" x 18". This picture was 'Image of the Month' for June 2011 at birdingart.com |
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Red Kites by Watts Wood [Comberton] (Milvus Milvus)
FRAMED ORIGINAL AVAILABLE: Code O1104 PRINTS AVAILABLE: Code P1104: A3 Print on Fine Art Paper £30 + £5 postage & packing. |
A chance reading of a story in the Cambridge Evening News of an injured red kite being cared for by the Raptor Foundation (St Ives Cambs) led to an enquiring email from me to seek permission to take photographs and make sketches of the bird for a future composition. Permission was granted, and I am most grateful to the Raptor Foundation for allowing me access whilst the bird was recuperating. It has taken a couple of years for the painting to be completed, after, in late summer 2010, I saw a red kite flying from Eversden to Lord's Bridge (where the telescopes are!) and on to Watt's Wood in Comberton. Artistic license allows two birds to be present. Red kites appear to be increasing in number and flight area, and do a very good job of clearing up the 'fallen' in the countryside. The concrete post, and scene beyond, is taken from the south-east corner of Watt's Wood, looking south towards the telescopes. ORIGINAL WATER COLOUR. Completed April 2011. View Framed Original 22" x 18". |
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White Helleborines and Chiffchaffs (Cephalanthera damasonium, previously Cephalanthera latifolia and Phylloscopus collybita) FRAMED ORIGINAL SOLD: Exhibition Code O1103 PRINTS AVAILABLE: Code P1103: |
SELECTED FOR National Exhibition of Wildlife Art (NEWA) 2011 (SOLD PREVIEW EVENING) (view NEWA page) and…PAINTERS ONLINE FAVOURITE IMAGE: "I am writing to let you know that one of your paintings from the gallery at painters-online.co.uk has been chosen by the team as one of their favourite images added during July. As such the images will appear in a special panel on the home page of the site for the whole of August, and also on the page Gallery Images 2011. Congratulations on having your work chosen."An invitation to a friend's wild garden to draw White Helleborines en plein air could not be refused. I packed up drawing materials in May 2010 and sat amongst these beautiful flowers in the late evening sun, with chiffchaffs flitting about amongst the undergrowth, and trilling their unmistakable 'Chiff-Chaff, Chiff-Chaff' all around me. It was such an enchanting scene that, along with discarded pots tangled in the undergrowth, a composition was born. I was allowed to pick a couple of stems, to help me with the fine art drawing. I wanted to portray chiffchaffs in a natural environment. Although it looks as though the bottom bird is being encouraged to make a nest in the pot, this probably would not happen, as Chiffchaffs usually nest on the ground, making a sturdy ball nest of grasses and mosses. They are reasonably safe from predators because they are very shy, unobtrusive little birds (when they are not singing that is!). Many thanks to Valerie and John for the Helleborines. ORIGINAL WATER COLOUR. Completed March 2011. Framed Original 22" x 18". |
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Posh spring coats on Ma's cherry stump (Starlings and Sparrow) FRAMED ORIGINAL AVAILABLE: Code O1102 £570 + £25 postage & packing. PRINTS AVAILABLE: Code P1102: |
I painted this picture on and off for a couple of years. The cherry tree stump is part of the trunk of a cherry tree which was planted by my mum and dad in their garden, just down the road from me, in the early 1970s. The new owners of my mother's house decided to chop the cherry tree down. I said that I would love to have the trunk and some branches in memory of my mum and dad, and with the help of a local farmer and tractor and trailer, and husband and three sons, the trunk was duly settled in a nice place in my little wild garden. As the picture shows, decay set in and the base of the stump became home to a number of lesser stag beetle larvae, discovered when we moved the stump to accommodate a Scots pine! The stump is now no more as it has completely rotten away. The situation of the starlings is a picture composed from two photographs I took in spring 2006. How beautiful are starlings when you really look at them? ORIGINAL WATER COLOUR. Completed February 2011. View Framed Original 22" x 18". |
