Spotted Dove on vintage (1956) page from 'What Bird is That?' by Neville W. Cayley

My current work seeks to accurately portray ornithological subjects using vintage book pages as both the inspiration and substrate onto which the birds are depicted. While the birds are depicted in a realistic manner the work retains a painterly quality with a combination of fine detail juxtaposing against evident brushwork and looser form.
My technique involves painting in acrylic in thin layers building up the form with layered feather details. At times some of the text may show through the paint in an almost shadowy way that binds the bird to the page but also contributes to the underlying feather details.

The use of vintage book pages as the substrate brings an underlying story to the piece through the history of the books themselves which is often evident in the imperfect nature of the paper with blemishes, marks, creases and wear. Yes it is a heinous crime – I cut pages from old books. As a book lover and collector (our bookcases are groaning and overflowing) it seems counterintuitive to essentially destroy a book in this way but there are several layers of context, reasoning and thought behind the concept.

The books themselves are not rare or overly valuable and are found through a variety of avenues but let’s consider today’s world and where they will end if unpurchased – maybe a charity shop but if unpurchased again then invariably to landfill (incidentally a vast amount of the books I use have come from op-shops). After all consumption of the written word is becoming more screen driven, so there is an upcycling component. But it is more than that. Each of these books has a story, a history that is written in the marks and blemishes on the page. In using these pages I am adding to that story as it lives on as a piece of art.

While the birds in some works can have an easily identifiable, even a direct link to the page content (as an example depicting a bird using the identification page from a field guide) others can have more discrete and even an intangible relationship to the page contents. Often the branch on which the bird is perched is left in the underpainting stage with no further details allowing the text on the page to remain visible and helping to both tie the bird to the page text while also lifting the bird prominently off the page.

Using a page from a field guide pays homage to the history of field guides and their use by birders whether professional or hobbyist. The use of field guides as a substrate for the piece also references the work of artists in the past who made field guides a work of art in themselves and builds on the relationship that we have with using a field guide to identify birds in our surroundings.