The Singing Sky is Petworth Festival exhibition

They launch the exhibition with The Singing Sky on Thursday, July 16 at 4pm at Leconfield Hall, Petworth. Tickets are £16.50 (adults) £11.50 (under 18s) available on https://petworthfestival.org.uk/kevis-house-gallery-event-the-singing-sky

At the introductory event, James will focus on landscape and birdsong. On show at Kevis House throughout the festival will be his work in ink and salt, expressive representations of the wild.

James will share both the preview event and the exhibition with Rebecca who will explain how her work references both the beauty and wonder of birds but also their fragility and vulnerability. In contrast to James’s predominantly mono work, Rebecca will be creating printed feather collages and a ‘mist net’ installation with colourful songbirds and birdsong notes printed directly onto feathers. Pieces reference flocks of parakeets, birds flying at sunset and the extraordinary distances some birds migrate.

Rebecca said: “I have been exhibiting at Kevis House Gallery for quite a few years. It's lovely to show outside of London and to bring in new audiences. It's a really lovely intimate gallery and they have new clients because of the footfall of people visiting Petworth House and visiting the town. I have just found that they are really good at showing my work and selling it.

“I'm showing two older pieces from when I was at the Royal College of Art. The gallery wanted there to be a bit of context for my work and to show where the work has come from but the new work is a mix of printed feather collage. Each feather is hand printed and then it is all collaged together to make different landscapes around the environment that I'm inspired by.

“I've done a series of birds printed on labels. That is talking about how fragile birdlife can be and that if we don't look after and protect it, it could become a specimen in a museum but it's also talking about the migration of birds and taking luggage labels as a pun.

“In a way it goes back to when I was 18. I lived in Papua New Guinea. I was travelling and they have the birds of paradise there and the local people use their feathers for incredible headdresses. I was just completely captivated by feathers and by birds. I was also brought up bird-watching and I have just carried on the interest in birds through my PhD at the Royal College of Art and the work that I have done since.”

James will be offering, as he says, similar themes: “I spent a lot of time in East Africa and saw the biodiversity there when I was in my mid-20s. I'm a writer as well and I started to write about the landscape in the particular area that I now live (near Hay-on-Wye).

“I discovered curlews. They are very enigmatic birds. They have the most amazing call. It is a long trailing call that is very haunting. I started researching and writing about them and found that in my lifetime the decline had been massive, an 80 per cent decline. There is this huge decline but there is lots of work trying to re-establish them. They are such an iconic species for me and an inspiration.”