Andie James - statement:

Over this year, I have been delving into my work, with the breadth of my fascination and fixation on nature; in particular; tropical birds. I have enjoyed producing experimental works and exhibitions with my vision to bring the tropical to the British rural landscapes we are familiar with. This got me thinking about the escape from Windsor Safari Park, where parrakeets and other tropical birds were unintentionally released into England’s habitat and thrived. If that worked, then why not other birds and more so, why not in paint form?

My fixation on tropical birds is from several inspirational safari and gallery visits over this year and the summer. One of artists that has inspired me is Paul Wright. Wright is an oil on linin painter, creating all manner of paintings, many including Tropical birds. I was able to view some of these at the Modern Artists Gallery in Henley-on-Thames; included ‘Chatterbox’ and ‘Toucan’. His use of colour and flowing brushstrokes brought to attention how stunning the plombage of birds are and how the composition, as opposed to the realistic representation of the bird was key.

I chose to explore and work with materials of the woodland and allow a fusion of these elements with my art practice as well as explore texture through my art. I obtained my own photographs of colourful tropical birds including, flamingos, pelicans, parrots and toucans. Working with acrylic, I painted three of these onto my wooden rounds. I selected laser cutting wood rounds rather than another shape, for their curvature and juxtaposed natural/unnatural shape which intrigued me as to how this could be formatted into nature.

Revisiting my aim for this project, being to intergrade tropical into local, immediately after exhibiting, I took my work into thew woodlands surround the university and photographed how these birds and wooden rounds interacted with the surrounds as well as understanding better how the colours of the tropical feathers sat with our greenspace. I loved the result of this and how the shape interacted with the wood and branches, specifically the toucan piece, ‘connecting’ to the branches of the trees.  After seeing this, next exhibition, I sought to create a tree out of foraged branches, producing a new tree in studio front the fallen. I chose to make a parrot the feature in exhibition two, with its wing outreaching, displaying all the colours and textures of the feathers adorning it.

Looking back over the photographs I had taken at zoos, the galleries and of my first exhibition in the woodland photoshoot, I recognised I needed to add portions of more colour to my instillation in a way that doesn’t draw attention from the parrot headpiece. While walking I noticed coloured rings around trees that were leading to different nature trails. I could incorporate this into my work to bring in additional tropical colours while innkeeping with what is seen in our forests.

My first endeavour was to tie coloured ribbon around trees in local woodland, testing this method in a natural environment. The results of this investigation lead me to try using paint on found sticks, striving for a more textured yet pigmented outcome. Once complete, I concluded that I would incorporate these ring markings in paint across my tree installation in different thicknesses. From this experimentation I unearthed that the colour ineffective was, surprisingly, yellow yet effective was green, red and blue.

With this outcome I furthered my quest for colour by producing a series of ‘birds-of-paradise’ flowers out of wire, tissue and acrylic paint finish. Successful in making, these were to be included across my tree’s branches in exhibition.

Assembly of my exhibition piece allowed me to visualise the concepts I have been trying to grasp with the joining of rural and tropical. Looking forward, I aim to better my representation of tropical birds in their splendour. More exploration into colour and flower form/study is also a must to increase the vividity of my art practice. However, I now intend to delve deeper into this, scaling up my work and integrating more texture and experimental brush strokes into my painting as well as increasing the amount of foraged wood I include to surround my pieces for even more effect.