The Laridae are a competitive family, clever, superior in demeanor – often menacing. The cackling call of gulls is a distinctive and familiar part of our landscape. In our maritime cities they nest in the masonry cliff faces and compete garrulously for food.

In the northern oceans their distant relations, the Gannets, live on towering sea stacs in their thousands, painting the rock white with their faeces and fearlessly plunging into the sea like bronze spears. The Sulidae are clumsier on land but graceful in flight. They shun human company and prefer their own company, shaking their heads in disapproval of intruders.

Painting of a Northern Gannet

The Gannet (2015)

The Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) or ‘Solan Goose’ is pictured here in full flight off the stacs of St Kilda, Scotland. This is a search for the essence of this Royal bird. Its proportions almost cruciform in construct, its shape simply dissolving into the sea and sky…

Acrylic on Canvas (40x60cm)
PRIVATE COLLECTION