Well you know I love birds but after the flowers and butterflies I just started to imagine all the birds I was seeing in the garden as sprayed copper birds.
Some are wall hung and some are standing and some like the Magpies just need to be in pairs “Two for Joy”
We all need Joy.
Firstly it was the Magpies, they are so cheeky but I fooled them with my copper Magpies and I fooled the dog too.
Pairs of Magpies prices from £60
Next it was the Pigeons, I know most people complain about them, but they have such lovely colours and markings. I couldn’t resist trying to make some. My garden gave me Blue Tits, Robins, Magpies, Blackbirds and Crows, so that is what Ive tried so far.
Well I have made plain copper butterflies before but the whole rainbow idea made me think of how I could create a sprayed copper butterfly rainbow.
My absolute favourite colour combo is pink and green and this leads back to my childhood and finding an elephant hawk moth caterpillar (who we called four eyes). I saw him eventually emerge into the beautiful pink and green moth. So pink was covered as a colour in my rainbow, I just had to work out the other colours.
I started by trying to stencil all the markings but also did some hand painting, especially on ones like the Peacock butterfly.
My Isolation colour photos were taken over 30 consecutive days and are about me and my dog Tolly working our way through the Rainbow during lockdown with a few special additions…
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Turquoise
Blue
Duck Egg
Pale Pink
Bright Pink
Purple
Black
Union Jack
White
Gold
Rainbow
Black + White
Cream
Silver
Sequins + Glitter
Khaki + Camouflage
Cardboard
Denim
Leopard
Star
Brown
Spotty
Iron + Steel
Stripey
Grey
Copper
My lovely friend Jacq sent me a photo by Rowena Meadows of her family all dressed in the same variations of one colour (Green) and said: “Reckon you guys could give this family a run for their money on this”
Well I sent back: “OMG I absolutely love this” and promptly put it to my family…who very quickly all refused.
I wasn’t going to be beaten so i turned to Tolly (our dog) and said “Well it’s you and me then Tolly” she didn’t say anything, so I assumed that was a yes from her.
This was sent through on a Saturday and I had a plan of action for Monday.
That weekend the colour collecting began on red and on the 27th April 2020 around 12.17pm my long suffering daughter Nell was called in to take the photo with my phone and hold the dog biscuit bone .(I say long suffering as I’m quite particular where I want the picture taken from and I do practice shots without me or Tolly in to try to get everything of that colour in the shot…)
On day two Orange it poured with rain so I took it inside to my kitchen.
Throughout these photos I have tried to put pieces of my artworks within the picture, but on day two I failed as I couldn’t find any of my embroidered orange book covers, but most other days I have succeeded.
It then became quite fun working out different areas of our home to set the photographs up in: kitchen, patio, drive, shroom, (inside + out) bathroom, garden, hall, shower, car boot, washing line, trampoline, shed, and any other spaces I could find for variety.
I sent some of the first days to the photographer in Australia Rowena who inspired the Rainbow photos and got a lovely voice note back. The jist of which was:
“Wow wow..the dog is loving it… there is so much imagination and joy…and glad you didn’t worry about your family not joining in..Stuff them!”
