One of my favourite poems! . .#Repost from @bearspeakstothestars “The wild god points to your side. You are bleeding heavily. You have been bleeding for a long time, Possibly since you were born. There is a bear in the wound.” From SOMETIMES A WILD GOD. https://ift.tt/2pVVaGZ #WildGodBook #WildWords #BearsInWounds #Soulwork #Poetry

It is thought that the rabbits around easter come from Pagan symbolism, representing fertility and new growth. However rabbits do not lay eggs…they are though quite like Hares. Young hares, (leverets), lie hidden in the long grass to avoid detection from predators. Motionless and perfectly camouflaged, the leverets can be found sharing the same space as Lapwings who use similar places to their own eggs. It’s therefore possible that people assumed that hares laid eggs…. This guardian article is interesting on the subject https://ift.tt/2oquX4h Happy Easter however you celebrate it!

Getting to know my war pigeons in colour…

Inspired by @jenihankins wonderful stories told through music I have been delving into our family history…I look forward to unravelling some old tales… No idea where they will take me but it looks interesting

Also still making little books, pamphlets and zines this one inspired by my grandad who John Morris Smith born in 1908 <3

The begining of my illuminated war pigeon icons… Well inspired by illuminated manuscripts and icons and of course pigeons!

I just adore this painting…by William Blake #Repost from @blakeinsussex … . ‘The Ghost of a Flea’ by #williamblake Circa 1819. . #williamblake #poet #artist #painting #mystic #poetry #spiritual #art #visionary #spirituality #original #romantic #artistlife #paintingaday #mysticism #poetrybooks #spiritual #arthistory #visionaryart #spirituality #blakeinsussex #songsofinnocence #originaldesign #artistsoninstagram #awaken #poemoftheday #sussex #felpham

The Guadalupe caracara or mourning caracara an extinct bird of prey. Described as “evil” and “vicious” it was driven to extinction by a hunting and poisoning campaign led by goat herders on Guadalupe Island. In March 1897, only one bird was encountered,but in 1900 collector Rollo Beck found 11 and preserved nine as scientific specimens. It is possible that he shot the last of the caracaras believing they were common. There was 1 possible sighting in 1903 but by 1906 they certainly extinct. . .

The largest know Cormorant ever to have existed was the spectacled cormorant or Pallas’s cormorant Phalacrocorax perspicillatus it inhabited Bering Island and possibly other places in the Komandorski Islands and the nearby coast of Kamchatka in the far northeast of Russia. It was described as large, clumsy and almost flightless although it was probably reluctant to fly rather than physically unable, Georg Steller in 1741 write that “they weighed 12–14 pounds, so that one single bird was sufficient for three starving men.” Apparently cormorants are normally unpalatable, Steller said “this bird tasted delicious, particularly when it was cooked in the way of the native Kamtchadals, who encased the whole bird in clay and buried it and baked it in a heated pit” The population declined quickly after further visitors to the area started collecting the birds for food and feathers, reports of whaling grounds and large populations of Arctic foxes and other animals with valuable pelts led to an influx of whalers and fur traders into the region; the last birds were reported to have lived around 1850 on Ariy Rock islet, off the northwestern tip of Bering Island.

Happy equinox…maybe we should take the last male rhino dying today as a turning point … We will have nothing left soon… If we don’t start to make a stand for the wildlife we have left! . . . #lastmalestanding #sudanwhiterhino #extinction #6thgreatextinction #equinox #turningpoint

Sudan the last male White rhino http://ift.tt/2u1Zzxr

Starting to sketch a few ideas for a series of little works…definitely with gold and possibly printmaking like the wonderful block books, biblia Pauperum…

More research…from illuminated manuscripts to Medieval playing cards “9 of Hounds” from “The Courtly Hunt Cards (Das Hofjagdspiel).” Workshop of Konrad Witz (Upper Rhineland, 1440–45), paper (pasteboard) with watercolor, opaque paint, and gold over pen and ink, 6 1/4 x 3 7/8 inches . . . . .

So many stories to tell….this is the Sharpe’s rail (Gallirallus sharpei) It is known only from the a specimen of unknown origin, but it has been speculated that it originated from Indonesia . Due to the lack of recent records, it has been considered extinct but new evidence suggests it to be an invalid identification…

Tonight I am enjoying this…a wonderful book on illuminated manuscripts leant to me by my friend @coralspencerartist

Pigeons with a touch of gold work in progress playing with ideas….

Red dots and pigeons a very good combination @wwtslimbridge

Pelican…this wonderful piece is on the corner of St Mary’s chapel at Truro cathedral …

Physiologus – the turtle dove …

And so my research bought me back to a familiar place…the Aberdeen Bestiary … I love illuminated manuscripts !