About the event

Attenborough Nature Centre will be exhibiting the artwork of Sarah Sutton throughout January.

The exhibition is located in the corridor at Attenborough Nature Centre and will be available during standard opening hours. A proportion of all sales will be donated to the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

About the artist

Through early education I studied art at school through A levels and then at college, but progressed with a design focus as I enjoyed a more technical and analytical artwork, particularly engineering drawings and rendering. I went on to gain a degree in product design at Nottingham Trent university. 

After this I found myself taking a more environmental focused career path, as I love the outdoors and never felt happy in the short time I spent working in an office all day. I worked for environmental charities, leading conservation work around Derbyshire and soon after was working in environmental education with local schools. Many of these sessions often involved art projects, which was a great way to connect people with nature. 

After having my own children, I began to move back towards a more creative practice. Making my own art that was looser, more playful and not as defined by mathematical boundaries. I taught myself how to work with ink and watercolour, something I had not used whilst at school. It’s working with ink and watercolour that I find I can balance the technical side of my previous design practice with a more creative aspect, to allow me to create much more artworks. 

About the artwork

This collection of work is called ‘Birds in Colourful Harmony’ I have focused on purely watercolour. This was a bit more of a challenge for me as I mainly work with ink. First sketching the subject then finishing with an watercolour wash.

Inspired by the elegance and vibrancy of our native UK birds. These are some of our everyday garden and woodland birds and often under appreciated, particularly birds like the chaffinch, which appear to be mostly brown! But once you start to examine these colours and break them down, you can see there is a kaleidoscope of colours to our feathered friends.

Many of which colours cannot be seen upon first sight and magically come to life during flight or through fleeting moments captured in natural bright daylight. I wanted to emphasise the magnificent colours of each bird. The colour dots that surround the birds, captivate a visual rhythm and echo their natural vibrancy.