LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Two years ago, I read a book about a blue parrot that lived in the Caatinga, an area of north-east Brazil. The parrot was a spix's macaw and the book was called Spix's Macaw: The Race To Save The World's Rarest Bird by Tony Juniper. Over 20 years ago, the spix's macaw became extinct in the wild. Coincidentally, around the same time that the last wild spix's macaw disappeared, I fulfilled a dream of studying art as a mature student. It was a fantastic experience, but when I left, I still had no idea of the direction in which I wanted to go. Fast forward a few years and I found myself studying the birds on the feeder outside the kitchen window. This ignited a love of birds and of painting birds in watercolour, which persists to this day.
I choose to paint in watercolour, because of its unique properties. The pigment flowing through water on paper captivates me. For many years I painted large pictures with detailed subjects and loose impressionistic backgrounds, as this satisfied my needof lovely flowing colour. Then, at the beginning of 2020, I made a complete change to my artistic practice. I decided to try my hand at painting in miniature and I fell completely in love with it. I still wanted to paint birds, but I knew that I wanted to learn more about both them and particularly parrots of the world, and consequently created an ongoing series of miniature paintings that I call ‘Parrots in Peril’. My aim with this series is to raise awareness about the threat to these beautiful birds.
