Rachel on SOCIAL

How do birds see their world - that world of undergrowth and unlimited sky? This is a series of paintings of birds, based on studying their form and behaviour, combined with imagined insights into the parallel worlds inhabited by nature. 

Human beings seem obsessed with ourselves and our own creations. We manufacture experiences aimed almost entirely at ourselves. But while we busy ourselves in this way - often in the pursuit of something we call progress - life for other species carries on in parallel, and with complete disregard for us.

As we execute our daily routines, slaves to gravity; birds fly on. In the bird universe - humans are largely irrelevant. This is useful for a birdwatcher and artist like me. I don’t wish to be a protagonist in their story I just wish to observe, so that I can study their form and behaviour, and wonder how they might perceive life.

Despite being human, my work is not so much about how humans see birds, more how birds might see life. A world of undergrowth and unlimited sky. A world of contrasting seasons. A world of beaks, and wings, and eggs and things.