Gallery

Gallery

All images © MC Wood.

Wren (The Violin-maker’s shed) This shed on a neighbouring allotment seems to lean more sharply every week, and would probably collapse if the whole family of wrens landed on it. Acrylic on board.

Stone barn near Petra, Lesvos A sketch of a small rustic building and its parched setting, seen at the end of summer. Not a bird in sight, but you can hear the Black-headed Buntings and Subalpine Warblers in the background. Watercolour on paper.

Toucan Barbets, Ecuador Seen near Bellavista Lodge, at the top of a Cecropia tree. One of the notable endemic species of this part of the Andes. Acrylic on paper.

Tree Creeper

Seen exploring the sinuous bark of an old willow, at one of my regular haunts north of Cambridge.

Acrylic on paper.

Long-tailed Tits A regular visitor to my garden and allotment. A young one recently landed on my shoulder, called a few times to its companions, then realised I’m not so inanimate after all. Acrylic on paper.

Azure-winged magpies in olive grove

Seen at the Finca Santa Marta near Trujillo, Extremadura, Spain. Family parties of these birds forage among the contorted branches of small olive trees and meadows full of flowers such as tassel hyacinth. In a landscape which gets baked in the summer heat, a single stem of reed was growing in the damp pocket of the hollow olive trunk.

Acrylic on board.

Moorhens at Milton This mat of backlit water-lily leaves is a favourite foraging patch for a pair of moorhens at a local pool, just north of Cambridge. Acrylic on board.

Golden oriole

Seen at the Finca Santa Marta near Trujillo, Extremadura, Spain, this is as much a portrait of the ancient cork oak as the bird.

Acrylic on board.

S’Albufera Sunset Night Herons flying out from their roost trees to feed in the huge marshland of S’Albufera de Mallorca. Acrylic on canvas.

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Ascending into the birch canopy at Holme Fen, Cambs. Acrylic on paper.

Hoopoe

A small sketch of this enigmatic bird, seen at the Finca Santa Marta, Trujillo, Spain.

Acrylic on paper.

Collared Aracari, Ecuador Foraging amongst the dramatic leaves and flowers of Heliconias in the cloud forest near Mindo. Work in progress, acrylic on canvas.

Crimson-rumped Toucanets (work in progress)

I started this large painting as soon as I returned from a trip to the cloud forests of Ecuador, then got sidetracked by book illustrations for three years. I hope to get back onto it soon, but in the meantime it has travelled around and several people have bought prints as it stands.

Acrylic on board, 695 x 500 mm.