By Robert Gillmor
Red Hare Publishing, 2014; pbk, 64pp; numerous colour and black-and-white images by the author
ISBN 978-1-910001-03-5 Subbuteo code M24370 £15.95
In 1998, Robert moved from Reading to the Norfolk countryside and Cley in order to semi-retire and take up a little print making again. Boy, did that theory unravel quickly. His 'little bit of print making' turned into a near full-time occupation, providing beautiful cover images for the evergreen 'New Naturalist' series, bird designs for postage stamps, poster images for the Birdfair and prints for exhibition. So much for a quiet life on the coast, but the art world is so much the richer for him still being a major part of it.
Like all serious wildlife artists, his ideas for prints comes from a first-hand connection with his subjects and over the years he has accumulated numerous sketchbooks filled with his field drawings and paintings. Unfortunately, little of their contents have appeared in the public domain, apart from an article in the then RSPB Birds magazine in spring 1992. That is until now with the publication of Norfolk Bird Sketches.
It is an A4-ish sized, landscape-format book with pages graced by pencil sketches, ink drawings and watercolours of birds made during visits to nature reserves along the north Norfolk coast. Most of the spreads are given to one species; the sketches are beautifully reproduced, looking as they did from the moment he trudged off the marsh after a day's work in the field. The images are lovely in their own right, but some can also be found appearing again in his aforementioned linocuts, giving us a refreshing look into the most important part of his creative process.
Norfolk Bird Sketches - a long time in the creation, but certainly worth the wait.
Dan Powell
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Issue 12
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