The King of Fishers......

Continuing the watery theme, there is a bird which many people are thrilled to see probably because it is so difficult to catch sight of - the Kingfisher.

 I recently made a visit to Easton Walled Gardens in Lincolnshire, as one of a group of people who meet there once a month to record the natural beauty of the place unfolding throughout the year. I highly recommend a visit if you love something different, where you can walk around large expanses of landscaped grass and enjoy both the sensitive reclamation of the gardens  with an excellent  lunch or tea in their tea shop afterwards.  The website explains all.....www.eastonwalledgardens.co.uk/‎

 

Walking along the river that cuts through the gardens, I spotted the bulrushes[Typha latifolia] which were showing signs of wear and tear from the battering the winter winds had given them. What beautiful shapes they are and what an interesting plant, it appears they can be used for just about anything, food, building material, biofuel, making paper and clothes....the list is endless! However, what they triggered in my imagination was the picture of a kingfisher perched amongst them patiently watching the river for their next meal.   

   

 

 

Thumb nail sketches for print ideas

 

There are lots of interesting buildings and architectural shapes at Easton, including this stone bridge which I've added in the background and after working on the sketches I've come up with a larger sketch which I think I will use for the reduction lino cut.

 

 

I'm going to have to think carefully about the colours on this, but did you know that their vivid colour is iridescence, not pigment – the pigment is actually dark brown! Interference between different wavelengths of light reflected from different layers of the feathers produces blues, greens and oranges, which accounts for why their feathers  can seem blue or green depending on the angle at which they are viewed.

 

Isn't nature wonderful! How can anyone improve on that? Perhaps I'll just have to be content with portraying the Kingfisher through my perspective, and the quirky serendipity of the print making  process of course......