Seascapes

A collection of vibrant abstract mixed media artworks using drawing and monotype printmaking, inspired by research into gannet colonies. The artworks were produced as part of a 6-month artist residency (October 2017 - April 2018) supported by the AA2A (Artists Access to Art Colleges) programme in collaboration with De Montfort University in Leicester.

The content of the artwork was inspired by Glasgow University research by Dr. Jana WE Jeglinski, into the movements of immature gannets across colonies. To understand young birds behaviour better and protect seabird populations Jana tracks their movements using solar-powered GPS mobile phone tags, which are taped to the tails of the birds (the tags fall off when the birds naturally moult their tails, after about 1 -2 months). The tags collect GPS locations and send them to Jana in the form of a text message.

I was fascinated by her research and was keen to produce new work inspired by the colonies in Helgoland in Germany, Grassholm in Wales and the largest colony in the world at Bass Rock in Scotland, with approx. 150,000 Northern gannets. I wanted to explore scientific research in a creative way using the notion of gannets moving from one colony to the next. To create artworks that visualise the volume of gannets and the variation of sounds across the colonies and across seasons, including mating season which would be deafening.