Award Winners at The Natural Eye 2023
The Birdwatch and Swarovksi Optik Artist of the Year award was given to Richard Allen for his oil ‘Winter sun, Avocets’.
"I was delighted to win the Birdwatch and Swarovski Optik Artist of the Year at the SWLA exhibition at the Mall Galleries, the prize will be put to very good use scanning the mudflats and creeks of the Essex coastline. I am fortunate to live on the Colne estuary with easy access to a wealth of subject matter in the waders and wildfowl that visit each year. My passion for field sketching can be readily fulfilled and I am particularly drawn towards strongly patterned birds such as Avocets, Lapwings and Shelduck against the patterns of mud, creeks and water. Especially so when as in "Winter sun, Avocets", dark threatening clouds are reflected in the wet mud and a shaft of low winter sun breaks through to illuminate the scene like a stage set. There is always something new to see down on the river, the constantly changing tide, weather, birds, time of day and year, I hope to fill many more sketchbooks." Richard Allen
Work by Jonathan Pomroy, winner of the Birdscapes Conservation Through Art Award (details, click on picture for full image)
"I am passionate about swifts. My memories go back to my days at primary school. I remember seeing them racing past large Edwardian windows when I was in the classroom. I wanted to see their eyes and find out what they’re all about." Jonathan Pomroy winner of the Birdscapes Conservation through Art Award
The RSPB Award was won by Derek Robertson for his nightingale piece.
"For many years I have worked on large and involved art projects that explore social and environmental issues - and push a little at the edges of what wildlife art can be about. The painting of a Nightingale is part of my "Migrations" project series which investigates the interaction between climate change and refugee crises. This project led to me travelling through Europe and the Middle East, staying with refugee families, interviewing ecologists and sketching in refugee camps and transit points. Recently, I extended this theme with subject matter from Ukraine. I gathered imagery and stories from video interviews with contacts there in the cities and at the borders of conflict. Featuring in the imagery, the Nightingale is the national bird of Ukraine and the Guelder Rose (Kalyna) is a poignant national symbol of the country. The small watercolour was one of three studies created last year in preparation for a really large and complicated painting that I have only recently completed." Derek Robertson RSPB Award winner
The Art Safari Works on Paper Award was given to Chris Wallbank for his huge drawing of a seabird colony. The piece measured over 4m.
"The Cleaver is a steep-sided slab of a sea stack at St Abb’s Head, Scottish Borders. I draw loomeries like this, one bird at a time to capture the whole topography with enough detail to observe the individual guillemot behaviour, such as preening and displaying, that bonds every bird in this living landscape together." Chris Wallbank winner of the Art Safari Work on Paper Award
"I am delighted and humbled to win the MH Watercolour prize. I spent many hours studying the Great Grey Shrike as it hunted beetles at Hothfield NR, Kent." Stephen Message winner of the Michael Harding Watercolour Prize
Michael Harding gave two awards, one for a painting in oils and one for a painting in watercolours. Stephen Message was given the watercolour prize for his Great Grey Shrike. Peter Partington was the recipient of the Michael Harding Oil Painting award.
“On a boat on my way to the Farne Islands I could see the puffins bobbing about on the sea as we approached. I was drawn to the movement and colour of the sea and the way it complemented the birds.” John Hatton Dry Red Press Award winner
The Dry Red Press Award went to John Hatton.
Helen Kennedy was awarded The Trymwood Studios Prize-an opportunity to exhibit a body of work at the gallery. (click on picture for full image)
“I’m delighted to win the Trymwood Studio Art Prize. This is my first time at the opening of the Natural Eye. It’s such an exciting event and great to put faces to the names of the artists whose work I greatly admire.” Helen Kennedy
The Mall Galleries prize was awarded to Roseanne Landon.
The Swarovski Optik New Artist Award for a non member work was presented to Jose Antonio Sencianes Ortega.
The SWLA are very grateful to all the sponsors of the awards at the exhibition.