Birds: The Art of Cornwall’s Birdlife

The exhibition is divided into a number of themes, from the ubiquitous gulls, to those birds found in and around our shoreline, estuaries and marshes; through to garden birds and domestic fowl, as well as more abstract observations of bird forms and movement.

Although the silky black chough is the county bird, the most notable and noisy feathered residents of our coastline are gulls, dipping and swooping around the rocks, snatching food and piercing the air with their calls. Gulls of all shapes and sizes are synonymous with a visit to Cornwall, and a pesky companion for any resident living within a mile of the coast. Paintings of them are also a key feature of the exhibition.

But they are not the only birds on display. Paintings range from detailed Victorian engravings of sandpipers, oystercatchers, gannets and razorbills, every feather carefully noted, to compositions of birds in their habitats by Charles Simpson and contemporary observations of shags and corvids, including choughs, by artists such as Kurt Jackson, Matt Johnson and Sarah Bell. A film showing murmurations of starlings and images by local photographers Andy Lawrence and David Chapmanalso feature.