A puffin called 'Little Brother' and a few facts about puffins

Little Brother

Atlantic Puffin
(image from wikipedia)

 Little Brother
© Lisa Treadwell

Fratercula is the genus name for the puffin and is translated from the Latin as ‘Little Brother’. The smart black and white plumage of this bird must have reminded people of the attire of monks, and possibly that monks in days gone by also inhabited some of the islands puffins might be found nesting on.

Atlantic puffins like to nest in burrows they dig themselves, or use those made by rabbits. Lining these with grass and leaves the puffin couple make a cosy home to raise their chick, only one egg being laid. Both parents bring fresh fish back to the hungry puffling, efficiently holding several at a time, sometimes more than a dozen. The beak is hinged just so the upper and lower bills can clamp at various angles allowing the collection of more than one fish at a time. The puffling grows quickly on all this protein fledging in about six weeks. The youngsters stay under ground and when they are big enough they leave the burrow one night and head out to open sea remaining their for five years whilst maturing ready to raise their own pufflings. Puffins arrive at their breeding sites in early spring and leave in August to spend the winter at sea.

Bright orange legs and feet, the colourful bill and eyes that are accentuated by dark blue skin above and below giving the triangular appearance and by pale grey cheeks, earn the stocky little puffin the nickname ‘Clown of the Sea’. A group of puffins being a ‘Circus’.

 Little Brother
© Lisa Treadwell

Three species of puffin exist, the horned and the tufted puffin living around the pacific. All are members of the auk family. My sculpture was based on the Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica. I wanted to capture what it is about this very charismatic and appealing bird, with a beak full of fresh fish you can imagine a feeling of pride as this stout little bird presents the catch to the young puffling.

The sculpture is made of laburnum wood, copper pipe for the beak with solder to seam it together and just give the suggestion of the arrangement of colours on an actual beak. The fish are of aluminium can. The eyes copper and the legs welded mild steel. The puffin sits on a piece of Portland Roach stone, the top layer of stone in the ‘Portland Formation’. This is a fossil rich limestone, very appropriate you can see the fossils of sea shells in this piece of stone.

The sculpture is exhibited at the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art until 2 August 2015:
http://www.newa-uk.com/pages/home.php

If you would like to know more about puffins take a look at these links:
https://www.seabird.org/wildlife/seabirds/puffin/12/26/46
http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/p/puffin/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_puffin

More about Portland stone:
http://www.dorsetgeologistsassociation.com/Portland-Stone/Portland_Stone_Document_-_7_June_12.pdf

To see more of my work visit:
www.lisatreadwell.co.uk

On naming a sculpture, scientific nomenclature and the strength of an oak tree

While Atlas held the world aloft on his mighty shoulders, Aristotle contemplated the relationships of living entities. In doing so he reasoned the foundations of a system for the classification of the natural world. Over the millennia this system was taken and refined by later scholars of natural history, until Carolus Linnaeus in the eighteenth century arrived at the ‘binomial’ system of assigning a universal name to a species. Hence Quercus robur, the common oak. The first part Quercus specifies the genus (a group that has characteristics in common, always written beginning with a capital and in italic), and robur the species (always lower case italic and species specific). By convention these names usually derive from Greek or Latin.

You may ask what has this to do with my art work? Well let me explain. As a visual artist I love creating, but once I have finished the work I really cannot be bothered about a name for it. It should work on its own, as a viewer you will make of it as you interpret. The thing is I very often get asked what a sculpture is called, or when being asked about a certain sculpture a name helps to avoid confusion with another. Therefore a name for my sculpture is not only useful, but as individual and unique creations I have eventually arrived at the conclusion they deserve their own specific name.

Hippocampus quercusat Natural Surroundings Norfolk
To view this sculpture and others by the auther click on
http://www.lisatreadwell.co.uk/woodsculpture.html

In the case of Hippocampus quercus, this particular sculpture kind of reminded me of a sea horse or something that lives under the sea, but seahorse, sub aqua or sea monster just did not sound right. I had fun creating this sculpture and so wanted a name that had a quirky sound to it.

I have always enjoyed the sound of the scientific names of dragonflies. They roll off the tongue in a multi syllabic flow - that is once you get the hang of pronouncing them. For example  Sym - pet - rum - sang - guin - e - um the ruddy darter which to my mind has an equally satisfying sound to it with its hint of expletive. Of course the reference is to the blood rich colouration of the dragonfly’s body and its darting nature.

The genus name for a sea horse is Hippocampus; it comes from the greek Hippos meaning horse and Kampos meaning sea monster, I think you will agree this has a satisfying sound to it. Hippocampus on its own is fine but not quite right, the sculpture is made of oak, so why not take Quercus which is latin for oak and is again a genus name, but for my sculpture I shall use it as the species name - hence Hippocampus quercus. Behold a new species is born, an oaken equine sea monster, which is sculpted from a fallen bough of Quercus robur. In latin robur means strengh. Quercus robur is strong like Atlas; its timber has held aloft the earth in the form of pit props and circumnavigated the worlds mighty oceans as ships. Two thousand or more individuals of Quercus robur making up any one ship. Quercus is renowned for its strength and endurance and unlike Atlas is no mythological being but a real entity who harbors in its cathedral of roots, trunk, bark, branches and foliage over four hundred other species all with their own scientific binomial.  Aristotle could not fail to be impressed.

Neozephyrus quercus the purple hairstreak butterfly sat on oak leaves,
the caterpillars of which feed on oak.
For more information on this butterfly visit
http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/Butterfly/32/Butterfly.html?ButterflyId=42

www.lisatreadwell.co.uk

Speckled Wood Butterfly and Inspiration

Finished watercolour painting of
Speckled Wood Butterfly
http://www.lisatreadwell.co.uk/Painting%20pages/butterflypaintin.html

‘Speckled Wood Butterfly’ and inspiration

Initially it appears dancing lightly around, a papery being that wishes not to be other than a part of the background it inhabits. This is my first impression on spotting a speckled wood butterfly. They are as subtle as the sun dappled hedgerows and woodland they like to inhabit. It is however on closer inspection a more sturdier creature than first crossed my vision, with creamy yellow spotting that sits well on rich brown wings.

I am able to revisit these impressions in my mind and with the photographs I have taken of this butterfly I was able to work out a design that exemplifies this ephemeral being of woodland and hedgerow.

To begin with I make some sketches, small rough thumbnails just to get a feel of where I would like to place things. I wanted to show off the rich creamy speckles contrasted to the deep chocolate browns on the upper surface of the wing and also the subtle range of colouration on those under wings. The photographs had been taken in August and the butterflies where settled on blackberries, the dark colours of which added emphasis to the creamy spots on the butterflies wings. A darkened background would through the butterflies into greater relief.

I was most pleased with this painting once I had finished it and on 24 May this painting was commended in the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year Award 2012. All winning entries can be viewed at: http://www.discoverwildlife.com/gallery/bbc-wildlife-artist-year-2012-winners?utm_source=Responsys&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=NLT_WILD_050712_GE

To find out more about the speckled wood butterfly or other uk butterfly species visit the website of Butterfly Conservation http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/

An initial rough sketch

A rough watercolour sketch

Design layed out on Arches Aquarelle
paper and masked ready to put down
the first section of background

Background applied

Masking removed

Second area of background applied
and painting progressing to final image

 www.lisatreadwell.co.uk

"Jeepers Creepers Where'd Ya Get Those Peepers"

Watercolour painting of Norfolk Hawkers.
© Lisa Treadwell
to view www.lisatreadwell.co.uk

How can I explain the surge of excitement I feel when I spot a dragonfly at rest and I have my camera in hand. It is made up of the anticipation of getting that definitive shot, a challenge of stealth in order to get close enough for the shot and the privileged spectacle of seeing these arial entomological jewels at close quarters.

Have you ever looked deep in to a pair of dragonfly eyes? I have and ‘gosh oh golly what a pair of eyes’. The photos are for reference for my paintings, and I like to get in close and reveal all that detail you would never see from a distance. Dragonflies are voracious aviators and whilst stationary not easy to approach when the sun is out, especially the group known as the Hawkers.

For some time I have been fooling myself that if I get out there early before the sun picks up I can get lucky and find some species at rest in the reeds before they stir from their torpor. For this reason there I was at 6.30am in the Bure Marshes NNR parting reeds and ‘waking’ to the realisation I was actually looking for a needle in a haystack.

My target quarry for the day was the Hairy Dragonfly and in particular the female. I had some reasonable pictures of the male from a previous visit. The females are often more difficult to photo in general, they don’t usually strut their stuff as do the males that like to hang out and patrol a territory over a stretch of water and their colouration is not so spectacular. I would guess for the purpose of camouflage during the vulnerable time when they are ovipositing (egg laying). They show up at the water-body in their own good time when they are ready to mate.

The 29 June may be considered a little late for this early season species. On a previous visit at the respectable time of 10am I had observed a dozen or so males patrolling a stretch of dyke, with their typical habit of flying about a foot or so over the water and zig-zagging in and out of the emergent reeds. This time at 6.30am only the keen Black tailed Skimmers were responding to my intrusions.

Close up of the Hairy Dragonfly (Brachytron pratense).
© Lisa Treadwell

Female Norfolk Hawker (Aeshna isoceles)
with identifying green eyes and yellow
isoceles triangle at the top of the abdomen.
© Lisa Treadwell

As I strolled around Mr. Pratense (scientific name Brachytron pratense) made an appearance at 9.45am landing once to taunt me and on a second time obliging for a minute or so while I got those all valuable shots. Observing through my Sigma 105mm macro lens I can see all that detail of colour in the eyes, rich cobalt blue, cerulean and burnt umber to complement, not just two eyes but a composite of 1000s all interpreting a segment of the world from behind a spherical glaze.

There were few dragonflies on the wing but in a precious moment aided by serendipity, one and then a second Norfolk Hawker landed a few feet away on the edge of the ride and very close to the floor. I did manage to acquaint the camera to this species last year and have made a painting from the results. Yet when this species presented itself to me so boldly this morning I felt nothing other than the delight of a child in a sweet shop. Which one to photo? No time for decision the choice was made for me, one took off and the other must have gone into sensory shut down. I was on the ground soaking up the wetness of the marsh through the seat of my trousers. The eyes of the rare Norfolk Hawker are renowned for being apple green and yet this particular individual on close inspection had a pure spot of cerulean on each eye, I was absolutely stunned.

I may not have got that shot of the female Hairy Dragonfly I wanted but I did not come away empty handed and I just want to say it again, Louis Armstrong had it right ‘Gosh oh golly what a pair of eyes’.

www.lisatreadwell.co.uk