European Bee Eater by Claire Hiett
Gouache Resist
21 x 20 cm cm
My partner is a qualified bird ringer and participates in projects worldwide. The photographs from which I painted both the owl and bee eater, were recently taken on a bird ringing residency in Greece, by one of his friends, who gave me permission to paint them.
@hiett_art
As a predominantly figurative painter on my BA, my practice post graduation, became more drawing focused as I rarely go anywhere without a sketchbook. The importance of documenting your world as an artist, designer or craftsperson, cannot be underestimated. I see and draw things daily that interest me, and due to my passion for recording my world, I'm able to return to develop ideas when invoked by a memory, a conversation or a piece of music. The work I choose to develop is by way of a variety of processes within the fields of painting and print making, although drawing is the most important visual language for me. In the main, my practice has evolved to be more exclusively that the sketchbook, rather than a means to an end, has become an end in itself, and my teaching practice encourages the realisation that all Art practice is drawing, just with different materials. I also find being in and engaging with nature very therapeutic, and so my work often includes the things I myself enjoy interacting with, such as birds and seasonal foliage.
