SULIS THE KINGFISHER

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GUY WARNER


Local Cotswolds artist, Guy Warner, has been specially commissioned to decorate our ‘Golden Kingfisher’ and there will be a prize draw at the end of the trail in Autumn 2021.

If you would like to be in with a chance to win this magnificent piece of art, all you have to do us purchase a £10 ticket through the official Kingfisher Trail app and you will be entered into the draw. Ticket numbers are limited to 500. The winner of the Golden Kingfisher will be notified and publicised at the conclusion of the project in Autumn 2021.


The inspiration for my kingfisher design comes from my passion for the landscape of the Cotswolds and in particular the conservation of that landscape.

The Cotswold Hills are home to such a rich patchwork of woods, fields, rivers, hedgerows and meadows and I have celebrated aspects of each of these in my design. I feel it is more important than ever that we are not complacent about the precious natural resources we have and that we keep working to protect them. The importance of this is highlighted perfectly by a project such as the Kingfisher Trail.

I especially wanted to include a reference to the watercourses of the Cotswolds because of the obvious relevance to kingfishers and the importance of water in conservation of wildlife and the landscape as a whole. The back of my kingfisher features a river which symbolises the various streams of the Cotswolds’ valleys.

I have named my kingfisher “Sulis” after the Celtic goddess of the thermal waters at Bath, later adopted by the Romans and worshipped as Sulis Minerva. Sulis the kingfisher will be displayed at Iford Manor Gardens which sit on the banks of the river Frome, giving a connection to the ancient waterways of Bath and the South Cotswolds.

The style and colour palette I have used, as with my landscape paintings, is drawn from my love of early twentieth century design, particularly poster art of the 1920s and 1930s. The geometric patterned elements are inspired by the architecture of the many wonderful Norman Churches we have scattered throughout the Cotswolds… and just a hint of ancient Egyptian and Byzantine design thrown in for good measure!

 
 

 
 

WAIT A MINNOW

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TRACY SPIERS

When PJ Crook asked me to be part of this wonderful trail, ‘Wait a Minnow,’ immediately came to mind. I knew from previous research that this small, elusive bird eats its weight in minnow every day, but it also has to wait patiently in order to catch the fish. We too have to wait more than a few minutes if we want to spot the kingfisher’s amazing flash of electric blue. My colourful punny kingfisher is full of grumpy fish - and a few that got away. On the front are references to weight and scales; on the back are hints at time and clocks with a few more fun fish puns.

My lovely mother-in-law Gill died of the cruel illness, Motor Neurone Disease in January 2020. Her favourite bird was the kingfisher and she would often get up early to watch them along the banks of the River Avon near her home in Evesham. I have been running for over 35 years and love pounding the canal and river banks, at one with nature. On the anniversary of her death, I ran parallel to a flying kingfisher. It was magical. My bright cheerful kingfisher is a tribute to her. I hope it makes you smile!

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LOCKDOWN LOVE BIRD

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IMOGEN HARVEY-LEWIS

Love comes in all shapes and flavours.

Lockdown Love bird is an illustration of living though lockdown and the counter intuitive notion of socially distancing from someone you love.

Taking delight in the natural world, animated figures nestle within the feathers of the majestic kingfisher, whilst little birds perch alongside. During the pandemic, nature has been a constant uplifter and delight. My design celebrates our living alongside the natural world.

The printed text within Love Bird is a love poem, lilting around the form from hand to chest to speech bubble. It is taken from my short, illustrated book, Rubbish (published Yew Tree Press in 2021), which delicately and frankly describes the incredulous ordeal of physically distancing from a loved one during this past lockdown year.

I hope that its poignancy and topicality ring true with many of you and that the dose of wry humour with which it was written does not go amiss. The bite sized snippets of text piece together however you feel, though there is a definitive order intended.

The characters that adorn Love Bird represent us all. They are both feisty, expressive, and calm. I love to play with scale in my illustration and to invent my characters to fit the intent. Working around such an unusual 3D shape has been a challenge, but also suggested configurations that may not have come about otherwise. I wanted my kingfisher to reflect my signature style of drawing, namely pen and ink, heavily hatched, emotive characterisation, and the integral use of words.

Rubbish: A lockdown love poem
I know it’s rubbish but
Why don’t you not come over
And we won’t hold hands
We could stay apart
For weeks on end
And not be us
Rewrite our diaries
Be abnormal
Pretend to be OK
You could not come round
And not sit down
U turn
Love
And try
Not to miss each other

Yeah…right.


 
 

WONDERFISHER

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MARTHA LIGHTFOOT

My first thought about the design for the kingfisher was to cover it with dense foliage, using a palette of blues and oranges. I decided to wait until it arrived and see what ideas it sparked, rather than design it on paper.

When I saw the kingfisher, my vision for it changed. On my wall I had a piece of paper that I’d used to test different colours of ink. I loved the way that the colours overlapped and shone through the layers, with plenty of white to give them breathing space. I realised I wanted the kingfisher to have something of that quality.

I began making big swishy marks all over the kingfisher in blue and orange, without much of a plan. I expanded my palette to include several greens, some pinks, and a little yellow and red. Initially I used diluted acrylic paints to try and capture to feel of those inky marks, and I built up the layers, sometimes using a dry brush for texture. At this stage I didn’t think too much about where the marks went.

When I experimented with outlining a leafy shape with thicker white paint, I suddenly knew how I wanted the kingfisher to look. Some brush marks on her back seemed a bit like a bird shape, which was when I realised there would be birds as well as plants.

Most of the shapes were unplanned, suggested by the colourful marks that I made in that first layer. My studio is full of unusual plants that I’m looking after for a friend, and some of these inspired the leaves on the kingfisher, along with the trees that I see from my window in Stroud.

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METAMORPHOSIS

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ED SWAREZ

This year we really are on the verge of something extraordinary.

“This piece is all about change.

It’s aim is to celebrate the diversity of our countryside ecosystems and to highlight the constant state of flux they find themselves in.

My original plan, ironically, also changed from something very challenging to something very beautiful.

And for me that’s all about colour and form. Whether it’s solid blocks or delicate blends the tonal range of colour is staggering.

Myself and Ady wanted to capture the vibrancy of nature and show it off in as diverse a range of colour as possible.

This led us to bringing that out of an emerging Kingfisher in true Swarez style! Colour, detail, vibrancy and energy.

It’s this emerging theme that’s a constant when we consider change. Our continued urbanisation of rural areas forces change across habitats and the wildlife that occupy them.

And through all those challenges and changes I’d like to think that we can all survive and thrive as long as we have respect for what lies around us and can learn to work with change, not force it”

 
 

EZANA AXUM

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PHILL BLAKE

The Kingfisher is renowned for attracting attention though its bright and bold colourings. The plumage of a Kingfisher is often considered to be exotic in colour in comparison to other birds native to Britain.

The colour scheme I have chosen to work with is designed to stand out against a natural surrounding, as does a Kingfisher in reality, but also I have taken a play on the part of the word ‘king’ and have taken inspiration from colours traditionally associated with royalty and ecclesiastic ornaments.

The Red white and blue elements of my piece also represent Great Britain.

The gold symbolizes the sun, but also creates a reaction to the sun and reflects the light from the sun back at the viewer.

I have used decorative elements, which I have selected from my recent body of surface pattern design work to embellish the various surfaces of the bird.

The patterns chosen are symmetrical in nature but also organic symbolising both order and chaos.

My pattern designs are inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, in particular William Morris and the, Neo-Gothic, Victorian artist and architect A. Welby Pugin.

My piece was created using Spray paint and Acrylic, two materials that I use regularly within my Art practice.

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AVIUM GLORIA

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SHILOHA LEVI

With my kingfisher I wanted to show how much they are a part of the river where they hunt and fish, mate and fight, live and die. So I have painted my one by incorporating river life and lake.

Local rivers, lakes and streams have been the inspiration for my kingfisher. In fact, just a short distance from the ancient ruins of Hailes Abbey lies a spring fed lake built hundreds of years ago to supply fish to the monks, and now stocked with fish by the current owners at Hayles Fruit Farm. Here, I love to walk around this tranquil backwater, taking photographs which are then turned into oil sketches and paintings. I love the light on the trees, the shadows on the water, drawing and painting the water lilies and carefully examining the shallows which in spring teem with tadpoles and baby frogs.

Nearer to home is the cheeky, bubbling Isbourne river, also a constant source of artistic inspiration for me. This tributary of the River Avon eventually becomes part of the Severn with its Kingfisher Trail.

 
 

WALKING WITH YOU

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ALBIE LUCAS

My initial idea for my kingfisher was to use the surface of the bird as a blank canvas for my small drawings and poetry. I wanted the theme to be about young people and how, like birds, they are free but also fragile. For me, the work is about the necessary but precarious act of taking flight and leaving home. When making the work I was thinking about small personal feelings of freedom and joy tinged with fear and sadness as well as more universal experiences.

I developed this idea by looking at ceramicists such as Grayson Perry who work on large pots and how narrative can affected by the surface that it’s on. A different story can be created depending on where you start looking on the three-dimensional object. I chose the vibrant yellow because I wanted my kingfisher to look really striking in order to draw people closer in to look at the smaller more subtle drawings and poetry on the surface.

I would love people to be able look closely at it and move around it, to look at it from different angles and to be able to make up and imagine their own stories of taking flight.

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WE ARE ALL MIGRANTS

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ANDY ‘DICE’ DAVIES

My piece is called 'We are all migrants' and takes inspiration from the pygmy rufous backed kingfisher, a tiny but brightly coloured bird that migrates around the world. Often seen as a symbol of freedom and welcomed wherever they chose to go, it is a shame we cannot afford this simple luxury to people as well as birds. There is a QR code on the back of my kingfisher which takes the viewer on an immersive trip through WH Davies' The Kingfisher poem.

In this wonderful work, Davies extolls 'It was the Rainbow gave thee birth, And left thee all her lovely hues;' much as this Earth has left us as people. It goes on to honour the kingfisher as a humble bird that could rightly take its place at the Kings table but chooses to live a solitary life along the riverbank beneath the weeping willow.

Just as many people are forced to hide their true colours and take menial jobs in a new world whilst hope still burns brightly inside them. I chose the Genus, family and species names to go along the wings and back of the bird in Latin but in a graffiti style to show that, when one goes back, we are all one people and that art has no boundaries. The chest tattoo symbolises the interconnectedness of all things. I hope you like it.

 
 

PETAL

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CURTIS HYLTON

The inspiration behind my work comes from my fascination of blending fauna and flora together to create a perfectly balanced hybrid of the two. This project has offered the chance to translate this practice to a 3D physical surface and I thoroughly enjoyed moving away from the walls to bring 'Petal' to life.

The colourway is loosely inspired by the colour combinations found on different species around the globe - however I wanted her to almost become part of whatever environment she inhabits so the pallette was desaturated and made more earthly.

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GHILLIE

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KERRY PHIPPEN

When I was considering how to paint my own kingfisher, my initial thoughts were the iridescent flashes of turquoise and orange associated with a glimpse of this little beauty. I had only seen kingfishers a couple of times in real life, once by the river Spey in the Cairngorms as a child, and much more recently at the back of the garden centre café in Nailsworth!

In terms of design, I strongly feel that the kingfisher is perfectly designed by nature itself so I felt that my job was to follow that design and try to emulate the beauty and glamour of it’s features. I have so enjoyed creating the softness and featheriness of this beautiful bird and have painted the plumage using irridescent acrylics to capture that magical sheen and shimmer.

The crown was added much later on in the painting process as I pondered the meaning of the name ‘King’ fisher and felt compelled to add a crown of fish, intertwined with sprigs of rosemary for extra flavour. The stripey socks are inspired by a personal obsession with all things striped and add a touch of humour.

 
 

HOMECOMING

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GEMMA COMPTON

After a year of uncertainty, fear and distance ‘Homecoming’ represents the emergence from various lockdowns and restrictions, spreading our wings to reconnect with the people we love.

My art has travelled across the world but I have never exhibited a painting in the town that I grew up in and called home. The Kingfisher trail has connected my creative process with my family who still live here in the Cotswolds and I hope it will bring joy as we all start to reconnect in the coming months.

‘Homecoming’ embodies hope with signs of new life (blooms) and freedom (butterflies/wings) and a homage to a tenacious little bird, a symbol of the resilience and versatility that we have all needed to get through the dark times of this pandemic.

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CROWN OF KINGFISHERS

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PEACHZZ

The UK has one of many different kingfisher species globally,

I wanted to create a piece that illustrates the connection between local and global environments.

The piece includes four Kingfishers that merge into one another, the Common, the Green, the White-throated and the Oriental Dwarf Kingfishers.

All four varieties can be found worldwide from Europe to Asia.

We are so lucky to have such a beautiful bird species here in the UK, and that in its self needs to be celebrated, which is what this piece represents.

My work primarily looks at birds and wildlife, so I created this piece in my typical expressive style while using a vibrant, bold colour palette.

The piece was created using a mix of spray paint and acrylic paints, using various mark-making techniques to give the piece movement and life.

The piece is named after the collective noun for a group of Kingfishers which is a crown of Kingfishers.

I find it inspiring the incredible variety we have within our natural ecosystems, which I hope to convey in this piece.

 
 

THE OWL & THE PUSSYCAT

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PJ CROOK

Most of my piece is taken up by Edward Lear’s nonsense poem as I wanted it be educational too, in a fun way. It also appears on the kingfisher as if written in a book that appears three times with two different pages appearing for each verse.

The nonsense poems of the artist Edward Lear (b.1812 ) have travelled through time bringing great joy to generation after generation of children and adults. I wanted my kingfisher to be primarily a work that would not only entertain but also educate and perhaps make both young and old smile. Lear was the penultimate of 21 children and suffered from depression and epilepsy throughout his life.

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ALL HAIL THE KINGFISHER

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HANNAH DYSON

I think of the Kingfisher as a truly magical creature. There is a real feeling of excitement and privilege when you see their vibrant little forms speed over the water’s surface. I wanted to create a character that would feed into my love of folk and fairy tales. The name ‘Kingfisher’ already denotes royalty, but I wanted to turn my version into a mythical folk beast, a lord of the waterways adored by all the insects and fairy creatures, reigning supreme in his watery world.

 
 

JACO, IN MEMORY OF MARK HOWELL

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EMMA HOWELL

First and foremost, Jaco is a tribute to my Dad, who passed away in 2016. As a local bassist, he put Cheltenham on the map for music in the 1980s with the opening of his guitar shop Aroundabout Sound. So, I named my kingfisher Jaco after his role model, the bassist Jaco Pastorius.

For the last 4 years, my practice as an artist has predominately evolved from a place of grief and loss, as it was painting and drawing that became my method of healing. My yearning to create urged me to step outside and explore the ‘new world’ I was living in without my Dad – and putting artwork out into the public eye (including Jaco) has given me the opportunity to extend my Dad’s creative legacy.

In regards to the design of Jaco, I found it important to honour the beautiful kingfisher itself by using the true feather colour palette - deep teal, ultramarine, cobalt, burnt orange and gold. The ideologies behind my work typically focus on authenticity, spontaneity, nature and humanness. To put it more simply, I translate perceptions of life onto surfaces. So, to stay true to my practice as an artist, I wanted to approach Jaco with the same philosophy.

You will find olive greens taken from the view of Cleeve Hill from my kitchen window; quick coiled paint marks to represent our brisk Cotswold weather; long smooth brush stokes to suggest moments of tranquil; rough pastel textures and meandering pencil contours for the hiking trails close to home, and bold patches of orange, peach and ultramarine to hint at the kingfisher’s fierce resilience. Jaco will not only take you on an abstract adventure of the Cotswolds, but also give you a calm moment to get lost in marks and textures made by hand. There are errors, marks of frustration and scribbled thoughts, but there are also lovingly applied strokes that layer up to reveal the true beauty of the bird.

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MORRIS MAJOR

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INKIE

This sculpture was inspired by William Morris wallpaper designs with a modern street art twist.

 
 

GRETA

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RUSSELL HAINES

‘Greta’ is my small homage to Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion.

We are living in an emergency where our planet and it's future is under threat. So act as if your house is on fire, because it is, and begin to respect existence or expect resistance.

Ideally a uniform amount of content for all artists, but not essential.

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KEVIN THE KINGFISHER

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JENNY WESTBROOK

I knew this would be a challenge because I have never done anything like this before, I was unsure how I would approach it because my method of working is to go straight in with the paint without a plan, but in this case, I was painting a bird, something that wasn’t abstract. I had to start again a couple of times before I could cope with painting on a 3D object as well, but in the end, it was fun and uplifting and I just cracked on with the task.

I decided that I would stick very loosely to kingfisher colours i.e., Blue back and wing feathers with a touch of shimmery silver, a golden orange breast and dark beak, the rest is freewheeling, it is about what I feel like doing on that day, playing that music and painting whatever feels and looks good, I ended up by adding bits of collage, editing out and balancing all the shapes and forms and that is how I approach all my work.

As I was working on him, he developed a personality, a definite identity, I called him ‘Kevin King’, he became a mystical creature with a touch of the con – man, I’d come into my studio and say ‘Morning, Kevin!’ and I swear, a couple of times he almost winked at me. I shall miss him when he flies off to be with his mates on the trail, but who am I to keep a bird caged up?

 
 

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT...

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THE NATIONAL STAR STUDENTS
AND LOUISE ADAMS

Students at National Star were given the wonderful opportunity to be a part of a wider community arts project. The Kingfisher Trail 2021. Due to Covid restrictions and availability of students it meant that Louise had to be creative with how individuals could access this project. A range of students with a diverse array of abilities took part in the decoupage decoration which unfolded. Some took responsibility for different parts of ‘Kenny’ the Fisher King, focussing on the head or the feet or the back. Many who were not able to get hands on with the application process took responsibility for painting individual feathers, later to be applied by others. It was a real group effort. The colours were kept true to life for the students who find abstract concepts challenging.

We have a word of the year, designed to give staff and students a ‘hook’ for creative work throughout the year. This year it is ‘Pause’ (Paws, Pours, Pores). This has certainly been a year where we have all taken stock – stopped for a moment – and reflected on many things. Students took time to discuss how they have been feeling in these uncertain times and came up with words to apply to the Kingfisher’s feathers – to make their mark and record their thoughts.

Aerial dance students took part in an aerial session pouring orange paint on to a large canvas. This was then prepared to create the breast plumage for Kenny. During testing times, this has been a project of colour, collaboration, inclusion and hope. Thank you from National Star.

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ART SHAPE

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ARTSHAPE & HARRIET WEST

Our Kingfisher is born from the melding of ideas from 12 artists, who all face barriers to practise and have been working together on a nature inspired project at Westonbirt. They identified major themes such as place, landscape, waterways, flora and fauna and the need to protect them. These came together to form a map.

The most beautiful map we knew was the medieval mappa mundi housed locally in Hereford Cathedral. We placed Art Shape at the centre of the world of Gloucestershire and went from there, charting the waterways, land and heavens.

We referenced the navigational skills of the Kingfisher and its internal GPS linked to the magnetic field of the Earth, local landmarks, and history and took flights of fancy to produce mythical creatures, beasts and tribes.

The Kingfisher emerges from a treasure cave in the bowels of the earth, the plundering of which led to the creeping industrialisation that bleeds into our beautiful countryside.

 
 

HALCYON DAYS

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KATIE B MORGAN

My initial thoughts for my decoration was my love of nature and my daily work involving 'British Folk Art', so I linked the two using fairground, canal and other traditional paint techniques.

I wanted to create a character so I dressed it in a pattern of bullrush check trousers, ducks to fish waistcoat ( after MC Escher), and a jacket of dragon and mayflies.

The fishing creel is full of books relating to water, including my own 'Words from the Canal', and the Severn and Radcot bridge are reflected in the eyes.

There's lots of details to look for including a Water shrew and Water Vole, Water Moth, Peacock butterfly, Stag Beetle, Water forget-me-not, rainbow, pussy willow, freshwater snails, frogs, a pattern of elvers, evern Bore timetable, rainbow, and the AONB logo.

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