Collection: Understanding Old Songs - BECS WOOD

This is what Becs says about her collection of works for the exhibition…
“Nature is important to me; being in nature, observing, conserving and better understanding plants and birdlife has been the focus of this series of work. Many of the works in this collection are inspired by a trip to Hauturu O Toi (Little Barrier Island) on a conservation volunteer trip. It was so interesting for me to see birdlife in their natural habitat, undertaking their natural roles. For example, the Kokako hopped freely around the lawn eating daisies and the Kereru (Kukupa) never flew and only struggled up a tree to roost.
From an artistic point of view this trip provided a great opportunity for me to both record my experience on Hauturu in the form of a diary, and encourage me to stop drawing generic leaves, plants, trees and birdlife and really focus in on our native New Zealand species. I was interested in challenging myself to better understand how each species interacted and wanted to capture the bird movement and interaction with its habitat. I usually use biro pens, pencil and a mixture of coloured pencils and watercolour paints to create my art work. I have always used readily accessible materials which do not take up large amounts of space because I like to draw on the go! More recently I began to complete woodcut relief prints, which allows me to experiment with a more stylised technique”.