Saturday, September 11, 2010

Birdfair mural 2010

Finally I've got round to posting these images of the completed mural. I mainly worked on the background, (the waterfall and forest, inc large tree) in the top photo, and some of the vegetation and pool on the left hand side (middle photo).





Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Birdfair mural 2010 - Ethiopia's Endemic birds

Each year the birdfair raises money for a particular conservation project focused on birds - with a mural being painted by the artists exhibiting at the event used to promote the cause in whatever area of the world it may be.

This year's focus was the threatened endemic birds of Ethiopia, and John Cox (as he has for many years) produced a design for the canvas. John usually also has been instrumental in painting the background of the mural ready for the rest of us to add our particular bird or birds to the background but having done it for so long, this year the job was passed to myself, alongside Szabolcs Kokay and Stefan Boensch.

To give us a head start, I produced the basic colour design for the mural, which was blocked in by volunteers before our arrival, which made the job of adding all the different bits of vegetation much easier, without having to start with a huge blank canvas. Thanks people!


Design for the mural, above



My simplified version showing rough background colours for various habitats within the mural, from highlands (left) to flat desert/savanna furthest right.
Birdfair 2010

A couple more photos of the stand at this year's event. I managed to produce more new work than in recent years, including a tawny owl painting and barn owl painting in the snow (top picture), and 2 new black grouse paintings (below) inspired by fieldwork undertaken in the pennines in the spring.

The latter 3 paintings arre on display for slae at the Birdscapes Gallery at Glandford, Norfolk - www.birdscapesgallery.co.uk





Birdfair 2010

I've finally got round to updating my blog and adding some pictures from this year's birdfair at Rutland water. There's a close up of the stand below, with another photo (bottom) showing the whole display.

This year Szabolcs and I had a double stand the the event for the first time, which was much better as we were able to show our work off to the best advantage. More pictures to follow....