Most designs start with a meander. This time it began with a flash of electric blue.
I can’t remember exactly where we were but somewhere on a canal boat, on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal near Great Heywood. Moored up for the evening, I’m sure there was wine and picky food involved and we were just relaxing after a day’s boating.
Along with the early mornings on a canal, the early evenings were also a treat. Just chilling and watching the wildlife is what it was all about. Until that day, I had never seen a kingfisher in my life, and nothing really prepares you for it. There was just this flash of electric blue that shot past me and caught me completely unawares, and vanished before I’d registered what it was. But then it happened again, and I realised to my delight that it was a Kingfisher.9
The light was fading fast, but a few minutes later I spotted him again, this time sitting still on a perch on the opposite side of the turning area, surrounded by rushes. I grabbed my camera and managed a couple of photos, and whilst I was really happy to record the episode, it wasn’t nearly detailed enough to ever draw from.
Nonetheless I was glad to get a reference photo, but I needed to do a fair bit of visual research, to work out the exact markings, proportions, and details.
That early evening is exactly why the background ended up the way it did. In the low light, everything around the kingfisher had dissolved into this muted field of light olive greens, no real detail, just tone which set the stage beautifully for our Kingfisher. I didn’t want anything to take away from those vivid colours. Against the earthy colours, the kingfisher’s blues (and oranges) do all the work, and this was the stage I wanted to set, capturing that moment completely, now not just as a memory … this is the story, and inspiration behind ‘Kingfisher Blues.’
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