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
My northern buddies at Cottonwolf invited me to be part of their series 1 project and created this lovely laser-etched walnut brooch.
It comes in at a chucky 5.5cm and in a lovely hand printed box, in a very limited run of 50 for only £20.
In my shop now
Check out the other pieces including Richt, Cloud Commission, Malarky and Drew Millward… they are all ace.
Moniker Projects in association with wagamama is launching art and eat, a project designed to create a unique showcase for some of the UK’s most exciting emerging artists by displaying an array of unique, specially-created artworks in wagamama restaurants across the country. The nine commissions have been created to deliver an extra dimension to the wagamama dining experience and to capture the imagination of diners and art critics alike.
Thanks to Moniker Projects
Images still and moving by Indeed Productions
New S & J Colouring Book for the Ghosts Of Gone Birds Exhibition opening next week in London. The book is a fundraiser for BirdLife International featuring an amazing array of artists from the UK, New York and Melbourne. This is just a sneak peak as the book will be launched at the exhibition and sold only online through me and will be in my shop next week.
This years Spotting & Jotting summer outing was held in the glorious Lake District at the Kendal Calling Festival. Birds where spotted, stickers we’re collected and special golden eggs were hunted and a grand old time was had by all.
As regular readers of this blog will know i love Waxwings and its getting to the time of year when they come and pay us a visit for the winter.
So here is a print showing them just before they leave home.
For Moniker Art’s Art&Eat project with and Wagamamas
Giclee Print with varnish on fine art paper
55cm x 40cm
edition of 24
signed by the artist
Available only from Moniker Arts
Last Days of Summer Festival, Manchester. 2011
Thanks to Spearfish
Caught By The River have produced another set of badges, this time featuring Starling, Tawny Owl, Waxwing and Linnet.
Available from the CBTR Shop.
New screenprint for the show ’3Cs’ at APG Gallery in Sheffield opening this friday 23rd.
More info soon…
Heres some sneak peak photos of next years summer line for Helly Hansen in Japan that i collaborated on with my good friends Gas as Interface.
This is a screenprint that i designed as a fundraiser for the Upper Space – Home Project.
3 colours, 50cm x 70cm on 300gsm cotton paper – £45
Printed by One69a
Available only at Upper Space
Home is a project running in Manchester by Upperspace Gallery highlighting devastating cuts by the government towards homelessness and housing on a street level. Here is my bird house that was placed in central Manchester.
Raw Design in Salford celebrated there firth birthday and asked me to come up and live paint this big canvas during there party, it was raffled off and help make a few hundred quid for the Wood Street Mission.
Plus this small canvas that was for the same charity show. Mines sold but there are plenty more on offer at Raw.
Here is an Crown Paint advert that is running on British TV at the moment.
I did the birds and the New York street/taxi scene. PLus all the stop frame drips and splashes around the house.
I made a post about it a while ago featuring stills.
Apus apus
Summer is coming to a close and sadly the swifts have just about all departed and the skies don’t look the same anymore. The swift is a bird built for one purpose only, to fly. Like a bow that took flight with the arrow, he is a permanent fixture screaming through our summer skies. Even though he’s often mistaken for a Swallow or Martin, the Swift isn’t even in the same family, but is in fact more closely related to Hummingbirds and another curiosity, the Nightjar. The Swift is a strange one as he’s unlike so many other birds. Strange facts surround him, such as he spends more time in the air then any other bird, he feeds and drinks exclusively in the air, he collects his nesting materials whilst in flight and he bathes, mates and sleeps whilst on the wing. Another myth is that the Swift doesn’t have feet, that one isn’t true, he just has short legs.
