Bluetit
Bullfinch
Green Woodpecker
Starlings
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Long-tailed tits
I had a week painting underpasses for the Old Moor RSPB reserve in Barnsley. Working with local schools and generally trying to keep warm. Really please with the outcome hopefully more to come.
I had lots of fun in Belfast last weekend, just waiting for some better shot of my piece to post as it was a tad dark.
Biggles to Kev.
Riso print coming to the shop soon.
Photos from Carnaby Street, i will post pics of the exhibition soon. They paintings will be up for another month so go and see them with your own eyes.
After a month of nowt but gulls, my lack of spotting has really been starting to get me down. But I forgot sometimes the world is a magical place and even a stroll to a suburban corner shop is a voyage of discovery.
Yesterday afternoon I was on my way to the post-office to send off a screen-print when I was alerted to a rustling in a rose bush and this little startled fellow popped out. Straight away I knew I had never seen one before and my mind raced to the bird book enclosed deep within its chasms… page 241 Redstart? No! 242 female Black Redstart? Close but this one is pink! Erm, Nightingale?? nope!! Wow. So I know reckoned he was a foreign soul blown off course and since I’m now living by the sea, Hove was his first resting place from France. So maybe he thought I was Frenchman carrying a baguette and came to me for help before realising I was northern-bird-nut and started chasing him down the street to get a better look. Poor sod. Realising he was already probably quite tired enough after his flight and needs as much strength as he can to get past all the bloody cats round here, I got one last look and let him be.He definitely looked like he was from the Robin family and similar to a Redstart but bigger, though it was completely brown with pink tail feathers. I’m back off to the post-office in a mo, this time I’m taking my binoculars.
I’m quite sure somebody reading this blog will know what it was, so if any birders or twitchers could get in touch and let me know that would be great (contact via info@caughtbytheriver.net). I know it will probably be something local and I’ll be rightly put in my place and feel like a chump but I am willing to take it on the chin. I once found a “penguin” bedraggled and confused on Brighton beach. So I called up the RSPCA and protected it from dogs and locals, even roping in my girlfriend and her best mate too. After a few hours the navy uniformed worked turned up and taking one look at him the “penguin” leapt spritely into the sea and I was told it was a Razorbill from up the coast. So yeah I’m used to this sort of thing.
More coming soon…
the Ilford to Dagenham bus route
I got commissioned by the Artist Residence Hotel in Brighton to paint Room 1, take a trip on the magic bus to the seaside.
New artwork for a Caught by the River download of bird themed/influenced songs. Volume one by Martin Noble of British Sea Power. Go get it!
Please come visit my first show since in the UK for some time. Private view on Thursday 28th of jan, come and say hi.
The quintessential winter bird. Who is actually with us all year round, as most gardeners will know, diving in around your wellys for grubs and worms even before spade has left earth. The Grandmother’s favourite but really everybody loves him. Charming and cocky, with his shocking red vest and a song like Sinatra.
Merry Christmas and a rockin robin New year from me and all the birds XX
From the ever wonderful Caught by the river
These just in and available from the Caught by the River shop. For only £3. What a bargain of a stocking filler!!
Levi’s and Europe’s finest street artists and designers have collaborated on the fight against AIDS. On the occasion of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, Levi’s will launch a global campaign of AIDS awareness. At the center of the campaign will be the work of such artists as Mysterious Al, PinkyVision, Ihok and Matt Sewell, with their illustrations for the slogan “I Am” as a positive, motivating message to the world.
The graphics will be distributed in Levi’s stores as postcards, together with red ribbons. The work of the designers (and others) will also be presented on a microsite at Levi.com at the end of November. Jeans brand Levi’s has long been engaged in the fight against AIDS. To date, the Levi Strauss foundation has already collected $40 million for AIDS initiatives. In June Levi’s was awarded with the Richard Holbrooke Leadership Award from the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC), an award given out to companies leading the fight against diseases.
Visit the site
The birds have been flying out, thanks to everyone for the uspport and kind comments. If you want one for chrimbo the last day to buy is friday 18th.
All the best
X
An indispensible peice of kit for any enthusiast dedicated to the spot and the jot.
Including a hand printed jotter, a Spotting & Jotting Club 9.5cm sew on patch (iron-on too), stickers and a spotting and jotting pencil with packaging and postage included all for £10.
Now get out there and let me know what you’ve spotted.
In the shop here
Three finches have been added to the collection. In the shop now.
Supplied in a hand printed box with a selection of goodies
Here’s a spread i was asked to contribute to Anna Wray’s Handmade Graphics on Rotovision.
It also features a step by step guide to me painting a spacey piece.
Was nicely surprised to see a wizard that i’d painted with Al pop up on his page too.
-Is it a goldfinch?
-No
-A yellowhammer?
-Nope
- Its not a blue tit is it?
-Don’t be daft, it’s a greenfinch
- Oh right yeah.Greenfinches are everywhere, not that we’d ever realise it. Not as green as you would imagine or as pretty as most finches but a lovely bird none of the less and is always welcome at the bird table.
A week after the Heads show at Prescriptions Arts in Brighton and i’m still recovering. More photos from the event to come. But in the meantime here is a special tiny print i did just for the event and was gonna be selling a few of here. But by some occult majik the last of the prints turned into a strange mush in my bag, so if you want one head to the show and pick one for free, if there are any left. Big thanks to all involved for making it an amazing week. Special dip of the wizards hat to Pinky for being a true star.
Each bird is individually hand made out of wood, painted and finished by my good self.
Bullfinch
Bluetit
House Sparrow
Each birds comes in its own nesting box with an assortment of extras.
In the shop now
Enter in Salford and climb through the clouds, mountains and ascend into the heavens.
Stairwell mural at the amazing Raw Design’s studios in Islington Mill, Salford. Big thanks go out to Rob, Steve and the team for a most pleasant week.
This is gonna be amazing!!
Ive been up in sunny Mnachester all week painting at Raw Designs Studio. Check out the progress so far on their flickr page
Grey Wagtail
Sadly, I saw a Grey wagtail everyday this week. It’s barbaric to think that a joyous spotting of this sprite can make me blue. But he has taken up the roost of my beloved Kingfisher. I have never lived so close to a river and for months I’ve been enjoying the company of one of Britain’s most beautiful birds, the Kingfisher. I have been trying to paint him for weeks but I just cant get that blue right. Anyone who has seen one will now what a blue it is too, a spectral blue not of this universe.
Now I’d like to think there wasn’t a fight and the Kingfisher was beaten up and bullied out by the Grey Wagtail, but having watched Attenborough so many times I cant help but fear so. Such is life. But as autumn is among us, I would like to think he and his Queenfisher left of their own accord and are just spending the winter at the riveria.Au revoir mon petit bleu ami! x
For your listening pleasure
The soundtrack to the Druids last stand. The proggier end of metal or the metaly end of prog.
But don’t let that put you off.
All track have been selected for there dopeness, heavyness and the shear amount of shredding
But don’t let that put you off.
“Would you dare to meet the gaze of the Basilisk
Or face the flames as the Phoenix burns?”
Download the whole mix here
http://www.mediafire.com/?hbzjxmzwonr
You might of guessed but i kinda have a thing for birds, i get very excited about what i’ve spotted and i love telling people. So i’ve only just gone and set up a twitter thingy just for this. If your interested in the fact that ive just been for a walk and seen Goldfinches, Long-tailed Tits, a Jay, a Heron and a thicket of visting Lapland Bunting then find me here. Don’t worry it wont just be about my feathered friends, i’m sure i’ll find some other things out there that float my boat.
http://twitter.com/sewellspotnjot
New for Christmas 2009. Coming very soon, email for details or stay tuned…
