The Natural Eye 2022

The Natural Eye, the annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists is held at the prestigious Mall Galleries, London. The show runs from 13th-22nd October and has over 300 works by many different artists inspired by the natural world.

I have a few pieces in the show. Chain Necked Water Rail was inspired from seeing one when I was in the Wadden Sea National Park in Denmark as part of the SWLA collaborative project earlier this year.

I have made a couple of hares for the show as well. Scratch is a smaller piece and Hare on Spade is pretty much life sized.

Hare on Spade by Harriet Mead — Hare on Spade

Scissor Tailed Tern is a sculpture with lots of negative space and made of carefully selected items for a more minimal piece.

Scissor Tailed Tern by Harriet Mead — Scissor Tailed Tern

Another bird in the exhibition is Fork Crested Lapwing.

Fork Crested Lapwing by Harriet Mead — Fork Crested Lapwing

Sickle Winged Swift (accidentally catalogued as Scissor Winged Swift) is another piece available from the exhibition.

Harriet Mead in conversation with Jack Perks

I was interviewed by Jack Perks, a wildlife cameraman and fish expert, for his podcast. We chatted about what inspires me, how I make my work and recent projects. To listen click here.

The Natural Eye 2021

The 58th annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists runs from 14-24 October 2021 at Mall Galleries in London. I have several pieces for sale at the exhibition. I have been inspired by animals that I see close to home as well as making a couple of works as a result of spending time at The Argyll and Islands Hope Spot Project in Scotland.

Shear Tawny Owl is about life sized and is perched on an old metal pipe. I really enjoyed playing with textures to describe the soft, barred plumage on the breast of the bird. Chain from an old dog lead, a carving fork and a small garden fork worked well. I am lucky to have a pair of tawny owls resident in my garden, although I rarely see them I do hear them a lot.

Shear Tawny Owl
Shear Tawny Owl
Shear Tawny Owl
Shear Tawny Owl
Shear Tawny Owl

Fork Feathered Raven is a life sized raven. There have been a pair wintering close to me here in Norfolk. Ravens are impressive birds and lend themselves well to the materials I use. The shaggy feathers are various garden forks and the huge beak is based around a ‘finger’ from a combine harvester. I enjoy making the sculpture balance and getting the stance of the subject right. I was careful to ensure that this raven stood properly without resorting to using the tail as a third point of contact.

Fork Feathered Raven
Fork Feathered Raven
Fork Feathered Raven
Fork Feathered Raven
Fork Feathered Raven
Fork Feathered Raven
Fork Feathered Raven
Fork Feathered Raven

Roe deer are common around where I live. I think they are the most elegant of the deer species in the UK. I have made female roe deer before but when I was looking through a box of pliers, I found some handles that made me think of the roebuck’s antlers so decided to try and make one. I wanted to emphasise the delicate stance by using simple tapered shapes for the legs rather than trying to create feet.

G-Clamp Roebuck
G-Clamp Roebuck
G-Clamp Roebuck
G-Clamp Roebuck
G-Clamp Roebuck
G-Clamp Roebuck

I was watching the house martins and swallows gathering before they started heading south and thought it would be nice to try and make a swallow. Whenever I make a sculpture, I look around at all the different tools I have in store and this large pair of tweezers made a perfect tail for the male swallow.

Tweezer Tailed Swallow
Tweezer Tailed Swallow
Tweezer Tailed Swallow
Tweezer Tailed Swallow
Tweezer Tailed Swallow

I am very fortunate to see hares almost daily here in the Brecks of Norfolk. I never get bored of them and love watching them. They are easiest to see in the winter or spring when the fields are bare or the crops low and it helps if I am out riding one of my horses as I have a great view from higher up!

Itchy
Itchy
Itchy
Itchy
Itchy

Padlock Shore Crab and Sawblade Wrasse were inspired by a trip I made to Tayvalloch in Scotland in July. Several SWLA artists were invited to spend time in this stunning area to swim and snorkel so that we could then make work inspired by the experience. It was part of The Argyll Coast and Islands Hope Spot Project, set up to celebrate the amazingly rich marine habitats of the area.

Padlock Shore Crab
Padlock Shore Crab
Padlock Shore Crab
Padlock Shore Crab

Sawblade Wrasse
Sawblade Wrasse
Sawblade Wrasse

Visit Mall Galleries to view the work, book a ticket to visit the exhibition or purchase one of the sculptures.

If you wish to commission me do get in touch via the contact form from this website.

Thoroughbred Filly

This life sized sculpture of a throughbred foal was commissioned by racehorse breeder Sara Cumani for the grounds of the new home that she and her husband Luca have built near Newmarket.

I wanted to capture the leggy potential of a thoroughbred foal and enjoyed using all the found objects within the piece. The new house and grounds are at the heart of the Cumani’s successful stud, surrounded by immaculate fields of contented mares, foals and youngstock. The foal sculpture is visible from the house and stands overlooking some of the stud fields where the broodmares and foals graze. It is a very beautiful setting for the piece and I was thrilled that Sara has planted wildflowers in the lawns around the foal sculpture.

The Natural Eye 2020

The 57th annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists is going ahead this year. The Mall Galleries have worked hard to enable visitors to enjoy the exhibition whilst ensuring that social distancing is in place.

I have managed to make seven works for the exhibition this year. Secret Squirrel was inspired by seeing grey squirrels visiting a walnut tree in my garden. The drill bits worked perfectly as a tail.

I have created three different birds for the show: Scissor Winged Tern is made using sickles, scissors and lots of chromed and light coloured items to reference the plumage shape and colour.

Twice Shy is a pretty much life sized bittern sculpture. Bitterns often adopt this strange pose when disturbed as if trying to blend into the reeds so the title works very well. The old dog lead chains hang really well on this piece but it took quite a lot of tinkering to get them right.

The third sculpture of a bird that I have created for the exhibition is of this resting Shag. These almost prehistoric looking birds nest on craggy shorelines and are often seen resting with outstretched wings. Thought to be drying their wings some scientists think it may be more to do with aiding digestion. Either way I think it makes a lovely shape. I needed to find a suitable base for the piece and was pleased to unearth a toolbox that obviously used to belong to someone called Ron, hence the title.

I always enjoy watching hares in the fields around my home in rural Norfolk. This year I have made a pair boxing (Lockdown Hares) and a study of one sitting hunkered down in a furrow (Red Hoe Hare).

Spanner Frog incorporates all kinds of old tools including ring spanners for the eyes and an old bottle opener in the back. It’s quite tricky capturing the way that the frog folds its back legs when at rest, especially when using old tools!

Somerset Horse

In 2017 I was asked to create a full sized farm horse for Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury.

This project was for a public art piece to celebrate the working horses of agricultural history. The museum is housed in an old farm and my sculpture has been named Punch after one of the horses that actually worked on the farm.

The sculpture is made of old tools and agricultural scrap so everything you see had a past history and use. I have been touched by how this sculpture has really captured the hearts of visitors and locals alike.

The Natural Eye, 56th annual exhibition of the Society of WIldlife Artists

The Natural Eye runs from 24th October to 3rd November 2019 and is held at the prestigious Mall Galleries, London. The exhibition shows the very best of art inspired by the natural world and includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and artist’s original prints. It’s a fantastic mix of excellent work and well worth a visit. Work exhibited at the show is available for sale via the Mall Galleries website.

The largest sculpture that I have created for the show this year is Doe Hoe Roe, a life sized female roe deer. I tried to use large tools for key parts of the sculpture such as the big g-clamps and sickles in the body. I used a couple of hoes, most notably in the back end, and could not resist the terrible title of the piece.

Doe Hoe Roe

This year I have been looking at swifts and have made three different flying swifts. They are such amazing birds and I am so happy that we have some nesting in special swift boxes on the house. I was lucky enough to see a hobby over the house quite regularly this summer, so I decided to try and make a hobby in flight. All four sculptures relied heavily on sickles for the structure. I think I used 15 in total across all four sculptures.

Sickle Winged Swift I

Sickle Winged Swift II

Sickel Winged Swift III

Sickle Winged Swift III

Sickle Winged Hobby

I enjoyed making Spoon Backed Egret. It was satisfying to get the bird balanced whilst capturing the movement. I found an old silver plated salad spoon which worked perfectly in the back but obviously I could not weld the silver, instead I used a nail to keep it in place which I then welded onto the sculpture.

Spoon Backed Egret

The Natural Eye 2018, 55th annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists

The annual exhibition is held at the Mall Galleries London from 25th October to 4th November. I will have eight pieces on show there but it is well worth a visit if you are keen on all kinds of art inspired by the natural world as there are over 350 catalogued works by numerous artists in addition to unframed project work in the Out of the Frame room which includes work by the amazing Ben Woodhams SWLA.

Sawblade Raven

Sawblade Raven is about life sized and involved a lot of shears for the wings and tail feathers. The bill began as a ‘finger’ from a combine harvester, the point through which the recipricol blades slide back and forth to cut through the crop.

Spoon Wild Dog

Spoon Wild Dog was inspired by a trip to Kwazulu Natal several years ago I was lucky enough to see a small pack of dogs and made many rapid sketches before they disappeared into the bush. This sculpture has a slotted spoon for one ear and what appears to be a holder for an air filter from an engine of some sort for the other ear. I am pleased with the balance of the piece and the hind foot off the floor.

Forceps Curlew

This Curlew sculpture was inspired by an unusual pair of curved forceps. They could have been a little longer for my purposes but I chose to keep them as I found them and hope the curlew experts would forgive me.

Leaf rake Pike

Leaf Rake Pike

Leaf Rake Pike is a bit of a monster at around 4 feet long. A few years ago I made a multiple fish sculpture which had a pike and more than twenty small fish in a river setting. I always loved the power of the pike in that piece so I decided to make a similar one as a stand alone work. Here is Fishscape from a few years ago.

Fishscape

I also have Iron Hawfinch, Itchy Hare, Coat Hook Hare and Stair Rod Grasshopper on show at the exhibition.

Iron Hawfinch

Itchy Hare

Coat Hook Hare

Stair Rod Grasshopper

The Natural Eye 2017

The annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists is held at the prestigious Mall Galleries and runs from Thursday 19th to Sunday 29th October (closes 1pm). I will have eight pieces on show including Spoon Lttle Owl, Scissor Bee-eater and Scissor Nuthatch. I will be giving a talk on my work on Tuesday 24th October at Mall Galleries at 3pm. The talk is free but you will need to pay to get into the exhibition. The exhibition shows the very best of art inspired by the natural world and is well worth a visit with over 360 works by more than 100 artists on show. www.swla.co.uk

Spoon Little Owl

Scissor Bee-eater

Scissor Nuthatch

The Natural Eye, Mall Galleries, London

The annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists runs from 26th October to 6th November. It showcases the very best of art inspired by the natural world and has over 350 pieces by more than 100 artists on display this year.

Trowel Owl

I have worked hard to get 8 pieces made for the exhibition, amongst them is ‘Funnel’ a cuckoo chick being fed by a reed warbler. This sculpture was inspired by a visit to a private nature reserve specifically to observe cuckoo young in warbler nests as part of the SWLA/BTO Flight Lines project. This project looks at the story of our summer migrants. Selected artists spent time with researchers and field biologists from the British Trust for Ornithology and the resulting work will culminate in a book to be published next year.

Funnel

The exhibition is open to the public and well worth a visit.

Damselfly on Stems