Flying above the Tideline was inspired by the shapes, colours and textures of the transient tidelines that lie along our beaches. They are a microhabitat for organisms such as crustaceans, and a crucial food source for seabirds. Alongside this, to participate with a piece in the Society of Ornithologists Club ‘Natural Collections’ Exhibition in May, I studied how seabird data has been collected over the years.
With this painting I have embedded within the mixed media early c1900 Lighthouse-keeper’s surveys (copies from the SOC archives!). Together with this is an old Admiralty Sea Chart and vintage seabird stamps. I have then juxtaposed these with fine ink lines, and ‘satellite’ marks to echo the satellite signals of modern data collecting, therefore merging together the change over time in collecting seabird data.
