Archive
Troubled Waters
Art and conservation in a creative partnership
It was about five years ago that I started to piece together the outlines of an art project that would link a lifetime interest in seabirds with the growing global conservation movement aimed at saving many seabird species from extinction.
My enthusiasm for the albatrosses and petrels had been forged during three very adventurous and hugely formative summers (1975 - 1977) working as a field assistant on a seabird research programme on Bird Island (South Georgia). Every day was spent living close-up to a range of beautiful and fascinating species. One day we were ringing wandering albatross chicks, another day collecting food samples from black-browed and grey-headed albatrosses. At night we mist-netted smaller petrels and prions, and we had tented field stations where we ran continuous sessions weighing white-chinned petrels and a range of albatross chicks. In between for me there was time to paint and draw filling numerous skecthbooks with the characteristics of each species, noting their behaviour and observing the subtleties in the landscape they occupied briefly for the summer breeding season. And being not long out of art school and emboldened by a BA degree in Fine Art, and having recently been employed as a production assistant in the RSPB film unit I took rolls of movie film and thousands of photographs. It was a creative feast mixed intoxicatingly with an intense wildlife experience that would flavour much of my subsequent professional career as an artist.
However, over the thirty or more years since the Bird Island experience many of the very same birds I had been so close to (and many other seabird species of the southern oceans) had been facing terrible losses - some years over 100,000 birds a year were being killed. The cause? Mainly longline fishing vessels trailing hundreds of kilometres of line with millions of baited hooks which were catching and drowning the birds as they plunged after the bait. For some species like wandering albatross it was possible that extinction would happen if nothing was done with some urgency. I knew the birds, I had have lived alongside them for months each year, I was sickened, angry and frightened by what was happening - and I wanted to get involved.
I already had a mass of artwork from Bird Island, and three years ago I had grabbed an opportunity to travel again to South Georgia so had a vastly different range of work that reflected a reawakened passion for the southern seas and the lives of the ocean wanderers. To complete the picture I wanted to get access to a fishing vessel and witness the collision of seabirds and the industrial harvesting of the sea’s resources providing a hugely creative focus to the mingled destinies of seamen and seabirds. In short - I desperately wanted to be ‘embedded’ in the work of the Albatross Task Force, the main agency leading the conservation effort.
Throughout the project I’ve been working very closely with John Fanshawe at BirdLife International who has provided huge support throughout. On my behalf he approached funding sources and secured a grant from the Wallace Foundation in the USA to enable me to go to sea and witness the work of the Albatross Task Force working in the South African fisheries.
Some aspects of my work as a professional artist are about the pursuit of visual art forms which explore species and habitats, and broader conservation issues so that when shown together, sometimes within a body of work from other artists, it might encourage an interest and provoke a debate in the wider public and among decision makers about the cultural value of wildlife and landscape and the importance of both in our lives. The Troubled Waters project will seek to achieve that end - as well as raise funds for the task force and seabird campaign.
Art and conservation in a creative partnership
It was about five years ago that I started to piece together the outlines of an art project that would link a lifetime interest in seabirds with the growing global conservation movement aimed at saving many seabird species from extinction.
My enthusiasm for the albatrosses and petrels had been forged during three very adventurous and hugely formative summers (1975 - 1977) working as a field assistant on a seabird research programme on Bird Island (South Georgia). Every day was spent living close-up to a range of beautiful and fascinating species. One day we were ringing wandering albatross chicks, another day collecting food samples from black-browed and grey-headed albatrosses. At night we mist-netted smaller petrels and prions, and we had tented field stations where we ran continuous sessions weighing white-chinned petrels and a range of albatross chicks. In between for me there was time to paint and draw filling numerous skecthbooks with the characteristics of each species, noting their behaviour and observing the subtleties in the landscape they occupied briefly for the summer breeding season. And being not long out of art school and emboldened by a BA degree in Fine Art, and having recently been employed as a production assistant in the RSPB film unit I took rolls of movie film and thousands of photographs. It was a creative feast mixed intoxicatingly with an intense wildlife experience that would flavour much of my subsequent professional career as an artist.
However, over the thirty or more years since the Bird Island experience many of the very same birds I had been so close to (and many other seabird species of the southern oceans) had been facing terrible losses - some years over 100,000 birds a year were being killed. The cause? Mainly longline fishing vessels trailing hundreds of kilometres of line with millions of baited hooks which were catching and drowning the birds as they plunged after the bait. For some species like wandering albatross it was possible that extinction would happen if nothing was done with some urgency. I knew the birds, I had have lived alongside them for months each year, I was sickened, angry and frightened by what was happening - and I wanted to get involved.
I already had a mass of artwork from Bird Island, and three years ago I had grabbed an opportunity to travel again to South Georgia so had a vastly different range of work that reflected a reawakened passion for the southern seas and the lives of the ocean wanderers. To complete the picture I wanted to get access to a fishing vessel and witness the collision of seabirds and the industrial harvesting of the sea’s resources providing a hugely creative focus to the mingled destinies of seamen and seabirds. In short - I desperately wanted to be ‘embedded’ in the work of the Albatross Task Force, the main agency leading the conservation effort.
Throughout the project I’ve been working very closely with John Fanshawe at BirdLife International who has provided huge support throughout. On my behalf he approached funding sources and secured a grant from the Wallace Foundation in the USA to enable me to go to sea and witness the work of the Albatross Task Force working in the South African fisheries.
Some aspects of my work as a professional artist are about the pursuit of visual art forms which explore species and habitats, and broader conservation issues so that when shown together, sometimes within a body of work from other artists, it might encourage an interest and provoke a debate in the wider public and among decision makers about the cultural value of wildlife and landscape and the importance of both in our lives. The Troubled Waters project will seek to achieve that end - as well as raise funds for the task force and seabird campaign.
| Branta Cruises |
| Troubled Waters |
| Atelier Natura |
| North Norfolk - December 2011 |
| Albion Press |
| Pulborough Brooks, RSPB nature reserve |
| Elmley Marshes, RSPB nature reserve |
| RSPB UK Headquarters |
| Migration Game, Sandwell Valley |
| UNEP-WCMC, World Conservation Monitoring Centre, UK |