My fascination with the amazing Cornish Chough began whilst on holiday in Cornwall a few years ago. I purchased a truly beautiful book written and illustrated by Deborah King called Chough Palores, which was a magical introduction to these birds. The book is a poem in English and Cornish (so I learnt that Palores means ‘chough’ in Cornish!), with marvellous illustrations. I found out that, although the bird was a national symbol, it had not been seen there for many years, as sadly it had vanished from the cliffs and coves of it’s homeland in the 1970’s.
A truly inspiring book, Chough Palores by Deborah King
Then, in 2001, wild choughs were seen on the Lizard, and a pair successfully bred there. By this time my interest in the birds had grown, and I found out there were choughs both on the Lizard and rumour had it, at Cape Cornwall too. By coincidence that year we were staying in St Just, which is near the Cape, one of the places I love to visit. Walking up to the memorial and the coast watch look-out station, which is perched precariously on the edge of the rocks, make it truly memorable.
Cape Cornwall, with the Brisons rocks in the background.
It was one of those crystal clear, red hot, sunny days which bring out the incredible vividness of the colours of the sea and sky. We wandered amongst the heather, walking towards the headland, when I heard a very distinctive call, a chee-ow, chee-ow sound and looking up I saw a pair of choughs playing, spiralling on the warm air and diving and dancing across the sky. I was enthralled and watched them until they disappeared along the coast, thrilled to have seen them, I still have the memory of them tumbling across the sky. Later, after scrambling up to the look-out station and gazing out at the shimmering turquoise sea, we returned across the rocks and heather for a picnic. As we sat down the birds returned and spiralled round again calling and after another moment’s enchantment we realised our chosen site happened to be nearly on top of a choughs nest! My search for the Cornish chough was complete…
I was so inspired by my first sighting of choughs in Cornwall, it was one of those days I’ll never forget. This was the inspiration for my original work painted and etched onto the most amazing piece of streaky turquoise opal Sea glass. When I saw that glass I just knew I had to paint a chough on it.The colours in the glass were as vivid and bright as I remembered from the day when I first saw them. I knew I wanted to have a stand of wild fennel in the painting and also low growing sea pinks, with ferns and a tangle of undergrowth. Also incorporated into the piece were the insects and beetles on which choughs feed, in the fine roots of the plants. The rocks in the sea in the distance are the Brisons, which you can see from Cape Cornwall.
Although the chough has returned to Cornwall, it’s still very rare, there are currently only 500 pairs in the whole of the UK. You can read more about it at www.chough.org
I’ve had a limited edition print created of my original etching on glass. It’s printed with lightfast inks and archival quality materials onto the most wonderful Hannemuhle German Etching paper. The print reproduces the luminosity of the glass colours and the paper gives a soft, velvet-like appearance to the print, whilst retaining the detail.The price is £30 plus p and p, which includes a print certificate and presentation box. This is a small edition of 50, for further details and to order please see my Etsy shop.
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