I never thought I would become an observer of bird behaviour. Since being adopted by three generations of Butcherbirds who come to my balcony to be fed, I have given them all a name. This interest in birds has manifested itself in a particular way in this group of paintings.

—Jenny Watson

Exhibition Dates: 13 February – 8 March 2014

I never thought I would become an observer of bird behaviour. Since being adopted by three generations of Butcherbirds who come to my balcony to be fed, I have given them all a name. This interest in birds has manifested itself in a particular way in this group of paintings. The only portrait is of a bird I have called Ginger, a simple direct painting on hessian.

Two works are painted on English furnishing linen purchased in Tokyo. For one I recalled Scarlet O’Hara and imagined her with a budgerigar after seeing Gone with the Wind again on television. The other I used a found photograph of two dancers and placed a red parrot on top of a head. Another work is painted on vintage wool, a macabre scene of a bird with an insect, a common sight observed in nature.

The final painting is a representation of an English “dolly bird,” the most glamorous female signifier one could imagine in the Australia of the nineteen sixties.

Jenny Watson, January 2014

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Jenny Watson A parrot atop dancers, 2014; Acrylic, Japanese pigment and diamantes on rabbit skin glue primed English printed linen ; 165 x 132 cm; enquire
A parrot atop dancers, 2014
Acrylic, Japanese pigment and diamantes on rabbit skin glue primed English printed linen
165 x 132 cm
Jenny Watson Bird with an insect, 2014; Japanese pigment tinted gesso on vintage wool with acrylic, pigment and diamantes; 108 x 100.5 cm; enquire
Bird with an insect, 2014
Japanese pigment tinted gesso on vintage wool with acrylic, pigment and diamantes
108 x 100.5 cm
Jenny Watson Scarlett O'Hara with a budgerigar, 2014; acrylic and Japanese pigment on rabbit skin glue primed English printed linen; 182 x 128 cm; enquire
Scarlett O'Hara with a budgerigar, 2014
acrylic and Japanese pigment on rabbit skin glue primed English printed linen
182 x 128 cm
Jenny Watson Ginger, 2014; acrylic and Japanese pigments on gesso primed hessian; 135 x 99 cm; enquire
Ginger, 2014
acrylic and Japanese pigments on gesso primed hessian
135 x 99 cm
Jenny Watson 60's dolly bird, 2014; Japanese pigment tinted gesso and acrylic on 10gm cotton duck; 160 x 95 cm; enquire
60's dolly bird, 2014
Japanese pigment tinted gesso and acrylic on 10gm cotton duck
160 x 95 cm