SHEENA GRAHAM-GEORGE gets the message from Tim Wootton’s vivid evocations of birdlife.

AS A complete non-birding person married to an avid birder who can identify a Lesser Spotted, Yellow Eyed, Ringed Widget just by a single note, it is frankly amazing how little I actually know about birds.

Brooding Guillemot by Tim Wootton

I’ve never really understood the all encompassing passion that birding folk feel for their little feathered friends. Armed with such credentials I wondered how I would feel about the current show at the Loft Gallery by well known local wildlife artist Tim Wootton.

A Summer Sketchbook is a culmination of the sketches Tim produced while out in the field studying breeding birds during the spring and summer of this year. The fact is I needn’t have worried, as I was about to be finally enlightened.

Like a novice birder peering over a cliff edge for the first time ready to observe a colony of Kittiwakes, I emerge from the top of the spiral staircase, into the fabulous Loft Gallery. The view that greets me is no less impressive than a colony of Kittiwakes in full voice during the breeding season.

In fact, I feel as though I have literally stepped into another environment altogether, a high distant aerie populated by nesting Guillemots, Puffins, Shags and Arctic Skuas. Solitary brooding birds, groups of birds, soft blue and brown speckled eggs in a camouflaged nest, the purple of an orchid; flashes of soft aqua sea, rocks patterned with yellowy orange lichen, fields of heather and soft afternoon summer light greet my eyes at every turn.

There are twenty eight annotated watercolours in total. As I read the scribbled notes that enhance each piece they pull me further into the impression of being out there in the field, bringing alive a very particular moment at a very particular time and place.

I feel completely immersed, as though I was there with Tim, crouched amongst the heather spying on a Black Headed Gull, binoculars to hand with his whispered commentary about each bird clear in my ear.

The intriguing paradox here is that even though I feel I can hear the screech of birds, the swish of the wind or the waves crashing on some distant shore, there is an amazing sense of calm and stillness about the work, yet at the same time there is vitality and a great sense of movement and energy in each piece.

Each bird captured in paint feels like a living breathing creature that any moment will take fright and fly-away. Maybe this comes as a result of working directly from nature where there is a sense of urgency to capture a fleeting moment, coupled with the beautiful and confident use of watercolour and Tim’s unerring ability as an artist to capture in pencil and paint so accurately the living world around him.

Who knows? All I know is that I admire the work immensely. It is not hindered by fussy detail but is painterly and skilfully observed.

This is the work of a mature and confident water-colourist who in a couple of brush strokes and a minimum of colour can produce such atmospheric paintings such as ‘Puffin at Castle of Burrian – Westray’, with its soft purples and warm orange browns evoking the almost smoky light of a summer afternoon out on the cliffs.

In ‘Black-head Siesta’ and once again in ‘Common Gulls on Papa Westray’ the light of a fleeting Orkney summer afternoon is perfectly encapsulated. Not all is summer sunshine. ‘Red Backed Shrike at Hestily, South Ronaldsay’ is reminiscent of early Japanese paintings in its style and simplicity of composition as Tim captures the essence of rain on a solitary bird as it clings to a single upright of vegetation.

Tim’s control of watercolour is a joy to behold especially with his use and range of greens – from soft summer yellow greens to deep blue greens of cliff-top vegetation and the olive greens of heather against deep purple shadows – wonderful! Up close his mark-making alone is intriguing to study, from fast little marks, frenetic scribbles in paint to huge swathes of big bold brush marks.

Usually I am quite difficult to please when it comes to exhibitions, but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience – and experience it is. I felt as though all my senses were alive. I would actively encourage everyone to take a trip up the spiral staircase and into the wonderful sights and sounds that await you at the top.

Open Monday-Saturday, 10am – 5pm

© Sheena Graham-George, 2009

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