Tarland Wetland Group

Tarland Wetlands Group presents:

Hidden Birds

Hidden Birds is an exhibition of works by local artists celebrating Tarland’s wetlands and waders. It highlights some of the beautiful species of bird found in the Howe of Cromar; including heron, oystercatcher and lapwing. The artists have used a range of mediums including watercolour, acrylic, embroidery and ink.

As well as being online, this very special collection can be found in the bird hide at Tarland’s former wastewater treatment works from the 26^th September – 30^th October 2020. The treatment works are 300m along the Coull Road from Tarland, on the right hand side of the road, just beyond the golf course. Due to Covid-19 we request that you use the hand sanitiser provided before entering the hide, and that only 1 household enter the bird hide at any time. Many thanks and we hope you enjoy the exhibition.

Please click on a picture to enlarge

Rona Mitchell

‘Catch of the day – grey herons’

Watercolour

Mary Taylor

‘Blue Flag Iris’

Watercolour on plywood

‘After an unsuccessful day of woodblock printing, I decided randomly to just paint a template instead! A beautiful semi-aquatic plant which thrives on the edges of ponds and wetlands.’

Gillian Needham

‘Curlew: the language of birds’

Acrylic on paper

‘I waded [sorry – pun] through the wonderful Readers Digest Book of British Birds and this just called out to me……’

Rona Mitchell

‘Lapwings’

Watercolour

Rona Mitchell

‘Moonlight in the Wetland’

Acryllic and Ink

Rona Mitchell

‘Our resident oystercatchers’

Acrylic

Elsa Brown

‘Tarland wetland grasses’

Acrylic

‘I chose this subject because I loved the grasses and wildflowers in the wetland area and the variety of textures and colours.’

Denise Hansford

‘The peewits’

Watercolour

Denise Hansford

‘The Tarland wetland’

Watercolour

‘My fourth picture was prompted after another visit to the hide and noting the greenness of the view with distant birds.’

Mary Taylor

‘Curlew rising over wetland’

Watercolour

I used to hear many curlews with their distinctive haunting call but now only rarely. My painting depicts this winged wonder flying over my imagined misty wetland’

Gillian Needham

‘Heron’

Permanent ink wash off

‘This image was created during a Tarland Art Group session with Lindsay Stewart.’

Trina Stark

‘Fading Light’

(Pink Footed Geese)

Mixed media on Paper

Gillian Needham

‘Wild geese’

Impermanent ink on paper

‘As the geese come and go as their seasons determine, so this image will fade away in time…..’

Helena Cameron

‘Lapwing’

Watercolour

“I chose to paint the lapwing as the sight and sound of the lapwings every summer in the Howe of Cromar is so special.”

Ian Ritchie

‘Curlew at Sunset’

Watercolour

‘The curlew is one of my favourite birds, especially its call.’

Denise Hansford

‘Curlew calling’

Watercolour

‘I really wanted to do a painting including a curlew as their call is so evocative of hill days to me.’

Denise Hansford

‘Damselfly’

Watercolour and ink

Denise Hansford

‘First chick’

Watercolour

‘I wanted to try using a very wet-in-wet watercolour technique and still manage to incorporate a plover which is a bird I love to see at the wetland each spring.’