"King of the castle"

Acrylic 16"x11"

Available through 'Birds! Birds! Birds!' Or contact me for details.

I came across this tumbledown wall at the edge of a manor house estate in Northamptonshire. Amongst the fallen stones a wren foraged for spiders, disappearing into the dark nooks and crannies only to reappear a short time later some distance from where he was first spotted. I imagined him creeping through the secret tunnels between the stones to re-emerge from any point in his castle that he chose. Once known as the king of winter, he was certainly the king of this domain, so I placed him where he could dominate the landscape, which is not easy for such a tiny bird, and there he could survey the land and declare himself 'King of the castle'.

click here to see a detail of the painting