Bird Song and Lockdown

I am South African, live in Switzerland, and have been an artist and worked in numerous creative fields all my life. My work like every artist has gone through stages and changes. But nothing was more instrumental to my work than the lockdown of 2020 and beyond.

As Covid-19 spread fear and infection around the world a beautiful Spring was pulsing life with bird song through the forests around Basel. This strange and unforgettable time was summed up by Stevan Lovatt in his book “Birdsong in a Time of Silence.” He says: “Right at the end of July 2020, it was reported that seismologists registered the sudden decline in human activity during the pandemic as a wave of silence passing over the Earth, its course exactly following that of the virus. From China to Iran to Italy, vibrations from traffic, industry and construction work faded or, for a time, halted altogether; the crust of the planet ceased to judder with the noise that had been dining, seemingly unstoppably, since the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Finally, the Earth could hear itself think, and the voice of its thought was birdsong”

Spending time in the forests during the lockdowns and listening to the bird songs, compelled me to start drawing and painting again. I was limited by the space of my small apartment and initially yearned for the beautiful atelier that I once had in Zurich, in what now seemed to be another life.  So I started with what I had available which was, paper and pencils. Initially, I sat at my kitchen table drawing in leperellos, (A6 accordion folding books) and then progressed to 50 x 70 cm format drawings also on my kitchen table. Finally, I took the plunge with a deep dive into large formats…..but still with my pencils.

Today, while doing these large format drawings, I feel connected to the birds and the forests, just as I was during the first lockdowns.

Basel Garden, 150 x 250 cm , 59 x 98 inches , Coloured pencil on paper, 2024