“Red Crested Cranes” Gouache on 18th Century endboards

For January we are delighted to be showing work by Wivenhoe artist, Nancy Taplin-Locke.

Adorning the scuffed covers of long-forgotten ledgers, Nancy Taplin Locke’s delicate paintings of birds evoke both transience and timelessness. Nancy collects paper ephemera, drawn to the stories hinted at by dog-eared pages, penciled notes, fingerprints, creases and stains. This jettisoned paperwork has become an habitual canvas for her. The foxed and blotted surfaces provide an almost topographical habitat that it seems only right to populate with birds.

“My paintings tell not just of a love of all things avian, but also of the profound friendship between my father, the sculptor Guy Taplin, and me. Minutely observed in gouache, each piece speaks of idyllic days spent together stalking the marshlands of Essex and the deserted barrier islands of the Ria Formosa with only the birds and each other for company.”