I will be exhibiting giclee prints of the book artwork through-out the whole of May in Rough Trade East. There will be a small launch on Saturday morning May the 5th from 11am. With watercolour bird painting classes and a special Birdsong quiz with Cheryl Tipp from The British Library.
Many thanks to Sambrook’s Brewery with their support for these exhibitions.
Over the moon to announce that my book Our Garden Birds was released earlier this month through Ebury Press.
Heres a lovely short film made with R & A Collaborations featuring animation from Sam Coxon.
Available cheep cheep (£6.80 at the time of typing) from Amazon here
Or
Signed and drawn in copies are available in my shop now.
If you have a special request for a dedication or a particular bird drawn in there please email me.
I would like to say more about the book myself but soem lovely person did a great job in an Amazon review for me… Thanks Jennywren!!
This is a beautiful little book that perfectly captures and brings alive the characters of 52 of our most familiar feathered friends through quirky, creative but very well-observed watercolours accompanied by amusingly written paragraphs celebrating the antics and habits of our garden birds.
Please be aware that this is not intended to be an identification guide or a technical bird book – it is more of a loving creative tribute written and painted by an artist / bird enthusiast who is clearly enchanted by the everyday encounters with birds as much as the less usual sightings, and wants to share these little birdy moments that brighten up everyday life. It’s not a long read, but isn’t meant to be – it began life as a weekly highlight on a blog before being collected for publishing, however once read it continues to be a book to dip into at any time and enjoy the little snapshots of bird characters. Although pocket-sized, it’s a perfect art coffee table book too, my copy has pride of place!
All in all, it’s a lovely gift book for anyone who is into illustration, nature, birds, art or any of Matt Sewell’s other work, and will hopefully delight and amuse non-birdy-aware people as much as those who are more ornithologically inclined. I also hope that it’ll get people noticing the everyday birds around them more and that can only be a good thing for their conservation.
Was very proud to see my V&A wooden birds be featured in an amazing photoshoot in the Guardian’s Weekend Magazine in a best of British Design feature.
The birds are available here
These Crown paint press ads that i worked on have been running in a lot of British national newspapers and home magazines for a few weeks now. I painted all of them and designed the words on the ‘male’ ad and half of the ‘neutral’ but Steph Baxter designed the words for the ‘female’ ad and half of the ‘neutral’ ones and i think they all turned out rather well. Really nice to be working again with BJL Ad Agency and Tim Ainsworth up in Manchester
I will be exhibiting artwork from “Our Garden Birds” at The Social, W1 from April 5th.
A very limited edition set of beer matts as been created to celebrate the event, be quick as they will disappear.
I’d like to thank Sambrooks Brewery for the kind support.
I’m running watercolour bird painting classes at The Guardian’s Open Weekend in London this sunday.
Pop by and paint a bluetit if your going!
Strawberry Thief
Nuthatch
Little Owl
I am honoured to reveal the three new wooden birds exclusive to the V&A Shop inspired by the Museum’s collection.
Playing on Sewell’s recent projects concerning British bird watching and his
personal passion for it, he was drawn to the V&A archives. Here he took inspiration
from William Morris’s furnishing textile Strawberry Thief, 1883 housed in the
textile collection, based on the infamous thrushes which frequently stole
strawberries from the kitchen garden of Morris’s countryside home. Little Owl and
Nuthatch were both spotted in the earliest hand coloured book of English birds,
The Natural History of Birds by Eleazar Albin published between 1731–8. Found in
the National Art Library, the title comprises 306 hand coloured etchings divided
into three volumes.
Each bird is handmade and painted by Sewell from reclaimed wood and FSC
accredited pine and comes in a hand printed nesting box customized for the V&A.
Available only at the V&A Shop or online here, here and a thieving thrush here
Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)
Definitely one of the most dashingly handsome of the garden visitors, he can easily give his cousin the Robin a run for his money. They are very much cut from the same cloth, but the Redstart ain’t half as bossy or nosey as the Robin. He just darts about singing with his lady-friend, flicking his beautiful orange tail. And what a lady she is, my word, by far the prettiest of all the female little birds. Spending any amount of time gazing upon this fair maiden is worth its weight in gold.
I have selected the tracks for the 10th in Caught By The Rivers series of ‘Birdsongs’ compilations. The download link will be sent out on Friday’s newsletter. To receive it make sure you’re signed up to their mailing list.
This was out a while back but thought i’d post up my interview as some people might wanna read my views on graffiti, street art and life in general. The mag is still available from here , it smells nice.
Read on
My friend Sam Pooley wrote a lovely little piece about me and my creative ways for local magazine Severn. Go and read and zoom on it on line here. Go to page 36.
Rook (Corvus frugilegus).
It’s almost as if they shouldn’t belong to the Crow family; sociable and generally vegetarian, Rooks are just out for a laugh really. With a clownish, daft face and a shaggy, dishevelled appearance, these croakers aren’t out to cause mischief like their cousins. In fact, when not in their rookery, they spend most of their time in fields not being scared by scarecrows (maybe if all the farmers got together and changed the name to ‘scarerooks’, that would work better). But farmers should just leave them alone as they eat as many pests and crop-eating bugs as they do seeds. Good old Rooks.
Poster for Heavenly Records new film night
Very excited about this commission for the V&A. So much so i had to post this picture.
Coal Tit (Periparus ater)
Like a faded Blue Tit who’s pulled his head out of a bottle of coal dust rather than milk, it’s easy to distinguish him from his brighter Titmouse cousins. Like Goldfinches the Coal Tit prefers to spend his time in great flocks, flitting between woodland, gardens and orchards, making for a gorgeous sight to behold – lucky us.
From the makers of Anorak comes Cagoule. I was honoured to have a selection of illustrations from my book to be featured in issue 1. Its an amazing magazine. Big thanks again to the lovely folks at Present Joys.
Always… Looking
And now they’ve found each other they’re heading back over the sea to Denmark.
Cover art for Manchester’s finest record label Red Deer Club’s new free download complilation.
Get it here. Featuring loads of good stuff including Stealing Sheep, Coney Island Sound and Jonnie Common
See you in 2012
X
Joseph, aged 5
Angela, adult group.
I was blown away by all the entries to the I love Waxwings Me competition, you guys made our job very difficult, or as Jimi Goodwin said “dead hard”. But we finally came to a decision and these two entrants summed up Waxwings to us. We love them.
Big thanks to everyone who entered. I dont have space to put everything up here but big shout go to the close runners, Mikkel Frost, Amelia Lake, Lydia Gennard, Alice Stephenson, Kit Jewitt, Beadie Spaull, Eve Rose, Jack Boyd, Ella Bryan, Rob Coyle, Georgia Hawkins, Dulcie & Emerson, Aaron, Bethan, And Vanna.
It was tough.
☾ Happy Solstice ☀
The fantastic folk at Pedlars have commissioned a set of exclusive giclee prints from Our Garden Birds including this 50cm x 70cm bird chart
and smaller prints of a Magpie, Starling, Coal Tits and a friendly Firecrest and Goldcrest.
Yes win this 50cm x 70cm Giclee print !
All you have to do is is paint or draw me a Waxwing before the 18th of December. All entrants will go before a panel of judges and the winners will be announced on the Winter Solstice and in the post to you for Christmas.
There are two groups, Under 14s and Over 14s. Please send all entries as a low resolution file with name, age and address to:
ilovewaxwingsme@gmail.com
Happy waxwinging!
I couldn’t resist posting up a pic of soem of teh colour proofs, i am so excited about it. The publisher and design team have down a cracking job.
Its now available for pre-order for only £7.50 on Amazon
Redwing (Turdus Iliacus)
Looking like a thrush that mistook a can of red spray-paint for his deodorant and headed out for the day.
It is now the perfect time of year to spot bands of Redwings. As they have now made their long journey over from northern Europe to take part in daring daylight raids on holly bushes in towns, hedges and gardens. Maybe its the holly berries that gives him the healthy glow.
From Caught by the river
Dont forget my new badges
In this beautiful, collectible new volume, artist Matt Sewell offers his own unique take on 52 of our favourite British garden birds.
Since its first appearance in July 2009, Matt’s ‘Bird of the Week’ feature for the Caught by the River website has quickly become a cult hit. His pop-art watercolours are distinctive and enchanting, as are his innovative descriptions, which see great tits ‘bossing the other birds around’, the ‘playful yet shy buoyancy’ of bullfinches and the ‘improbable’ nature of the waxwing (‘like a computer-generated samurai finch’).
With 52 birds, one for each week of the year, this delightful gift book will appeal to birders, children and adults, and art and design fans alike.
Speaking of books.”Our Garden Birds’ on Ebury is now available for preorder for only £7.50 on Amazon
Occurrence Of Birds is the second film to be made as part of our 5 X 5 / 7 project. This project involves us making five films with five people over seven days. In this film we set out to discover illustrator Matt Sewell’s interest and love of birds and why he draws them. The moving image is constructed entirely from still images taken in “bursts” creating an effect that evokes early film qualities. The soundtrack is created from a recording of Matt’s vinyl collection of bird sounds and an interview. The finished film is the result of 14 hours continuous work from inception to completion.
Occurence Of Birds from R & A Collaborations on Vimeo.
The colouring book is available to buy now from the Spotting & Jotting shop
More info on all the birds and artists here
