The Red List buying Series- Swift

The swift. Sleeping, eating, bathing and mating on the wing. For all its majesty its numbers have fallen 50% since 1995.
By showing your support in buying this you are enabling me to continue to archive these birds and spread the word. I chose to work in mezzotint for this long term project because the time required to scrape and burnish each piece enables me to really understand the bird in question. Working in a range of dark tones, the true colour of the bird is absent, archived as if from an old book, perhaps from a time when the population of these particular birds was of no concern.

Birds are a symbol of freedom, if we lose them we will come crashing back down to buying earth. The delicate connections and interrelations between us, our landscape, flora and fauna dictates the wider climate emergency. Through archiving these birds I hope to raise awareness of their individuality, unique characteristics and their personal histories, in the hope that they will not become merely another memory.