Every winter, huge flocks of starlings put on a spectacular display on the seafront of Aberystwyth, Wales, during their nightly commute to roost on the pier. They gather in vast numbers and perform their beautiful acrobatics, known as ‘murmurations’. The same spectacle plays out every single year. But all around the world, while nature’s rhythms... Continue Reading →
My paintings have never been explicitly personal. The stories of any specific painting tend to appear after the work has been completed, rather than before it. Sometimes it’s a simple source of inspiration: one song title or one piece of music that triggered the colour scheme, or a particular story of an animal or planet... Continue Reading →
For me atmosphere is wonder. Showing just enough of something to excite the imagination. The Laysan albatross is an ode to that wonder. These birds that dance so majestically, like fencers with the grace of ballet dancers, are here shown in their straight-arrow pose looking up to the jovial night sky, as if listening out for the very music of the spheres.
It's getting colder out there, and sometimes thanks to lack of indoor heating it can get quite chilly at the easel. The sun goes down much earlier, and when you don't want to get paint on your dressing gown, mini paintings are the perfect solution! I thought I'd share with you a few of the... Continue Reading →
"Birdbrain": we've all heard the term, bandied it around, perhaps even referred to another person as one. But where does this come from, and does it have any merit? The common notion is that birds are, to put in bluntly, dumb. But birds aren't stupid at all. By proportion, they have pretty tiny brains (a... Continue Reading →
Dinosaurs in drag. That's effectively what birds are. The scaly-legged, scaled-down and more decorative great-great-great-great grandchildren of the dinosaurs. Whether you believe that birds are descended from dinosaurs or not (but you really, really should), it's hard not to be fascinated by these animals. Whilst some people are terrified of birds to the point of hysterics... Continue Reading →
Over 12 million people in the UK tuned in to watch the opening episode of David Attenborough's Planet Earth II - and if you are anything like me, you were watching and you were moved by the male buller's albatross, waiting patiently on his nest for his mate to return to him after many months... Continue Reading →
Art Inspired By Nature And The Cosmos 