AAACatalogueHI_Compressed - Catalog - Page 3
Andrew
Stock
Margins
Once again the shorelines of Devon and Cornwall have kept me busy. In May the cliffs near
Mawgan Porth on the north Cornish coastal path were rich in wild flowers, gorse and
heathers. I watched ravens, peregrines, kestrels and jackdaws, often hanging in the
updrafts or soaring high in cloudless skies, while Fulmars and herring gulls were nesting on
the cliffs. And then there were the choughs.
Choughs reappeared in Cornwall in 2001 and the population has been slowly expanding
since then. I have previously painted several pictures that have included the alpine chough
(in the Austrian Alps), but I was now looking for the red-billed, or Cornish chough. I had my
sketchbook and binoculars with me and so was delighted to find a flock of six feeding on a
steep, rugged outcrop, scattered with thrift and campion.
Choughs are an unusual crow with red bill and legs, a loud chawing call, slightly comical in
their curious behaviour and often not at all shy. They are clearly successfully re-establishing
themselves in the West Country as later in the year I watched a flock of at least 15 over the
St Enodoc Golf Course in Rock.
The local bird life continues to catch my attention, with the River Torridge providing many
waders and wildfowl that thrive on the margins. In the winter large flocks of lapwing gather,
settling on the mudflats just below the saltmarsh. Curlews, oystercatchers and occasional
black-tailed godwits probe the ever-giving mud for worms, while redshanks and sandpipers
busily bob around on the tide line. Egrets chase fry in the shallows, while sinister-looking
cormorants, wings hanging open, are parked up on ancient branches protruding from the
grey mud.
Private view:
Tuesday 11 November: 6pm - 8pm
Exhibition:
Wednesday 12 – Friday 14 November
Gallery Different
14 Percy Street
Fitzrovia
London W1T 1DR
For further information, please contact Lucy:
07710 325260
lucy@andrewstock.co.uk
www.andrewstock.co.uk
ABOVE
Oystercatcher Oil, 19 x 23 cm £475
Lundy puffin Oil, 19 x 23 cm £475
Lundy Island in the spring proved very successful; after a good walk to the northern end I
settled near Gannet Rock with telescope and sketchbook to hand. Spotting a peregrine a
couple of hundred metres away perched high up, half in the shadows, I set to with pencil
and paint. Later it was Lundy’s ever charming puffins at Jenny’s Cove on the west side of
the island that occupied me.
It is not just the sea cliffs that keep me busy, but also our local Taw-Torridge estuary with
the Torridge running close to our home. I might be sailing, kayaking, fishing, or just walking
the riverbank but am continually intrigued by the force of the surging tides. The vast
expanses of mudflats that gather wildfowl and waders in the winter also collect random
flotsam, deposited on the tide lines or snared mid-river by sunken branches. Entire trees,
old boats, endless plastic bottles and the inevitable traffic cones are regular sights.
My estuary painting took many weeks to complete, starting with me sketching the bridge
and river standing ankle deep in the mud at low water. I wanted to include a part of
Bideford’s ancient Long Bridge as well as the tidal river at low water. A high tide and the
river can rise well over six metres – offering a very different view.
