Artist creates 'pagan' birdlife based on Ladybird book illustrations
An artist has created several new species of unsual birds after holidaying in the area which inspired the occult thriller The Wicker Man.
Edward Summerton collaborated with some of Scotland's leading writers and artists to produce the collection.
The images, based on traditional Ladybird illustrations, were created by the Dundee lecturer while on a break in the Summer Isles.
The Summer Isles, off the coast of the North West Highlands, were the inspiration for Lord Summerisle's island in the original Wicker Man film, which starred Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward.
Mr Summerton, who teaches at Dundee University's Duncan of Jordanstone art college, teamed up with 17 famous writers and artists including Michael Marra, Laura Hird and Graham Fagen, to produce the work.
The Golden Feathered Lover
Each came up with a fictional name and short story surrounding the bird, resulting in creations including the "Panticle", "Blood Sucking Dunny Gull" and the "Sentry Owl".
Mr Summerton said: "There was a collection of Ladybird natural history books in the cottage where we were staying and these gave me great inspiration and a basis for my project". Mr Summerton is referring to the wonderful bird drawings by John Leigh-Pemberton who illustrated several Ladybird natural history titles.
The image above of the Golden Feathered Lover may seem familiar to Ladybird collectors as it's inspired by the cover-art of Birds
of Prey from Ladybird series 536 - in fact it is almost identical apart from the colouring and the hair that Mr Summerton has added.
Below are another 3 examples of Mr Summerton's Pagan Birds - I'm sure any Ladybird enthusiast will easily spot the images these birds were based on.
Haar Ousel
Tree Creepy
Sentry Owl
The Ladybird books were plucked from itheir perch and an act of petty vandalism was soon committed, in which John Leigh-Pemberton's bird illustrations were altered with gouache and a fine sable. These were then stamped and sent as postcards-cum-cryptic mail-art to Kirriemuir based Poet, Writer and Musician Don Paterson, Tranent based Artist and Ex-Fall Guitarist Tommy Crooks, and to the sunnier climes of the South of France to Sandy Guy.
"The history and mythologies surrounding the Summer Isles and its relation to the Wicker Man somehow leaked into the Ladybird images I worked with, hatching some strange breed of pagan birdlife."
The collection, entitled "Bird of the Devil" has been released in a new book published by ET4U, Denmark - Eighteen altered images and 18 writers with Goose feathers in hand and ink in well. A Strict Nature Reserve Publication - Also published in an edition of 500 individually numbered tomes, slightly smaller than A5 in size.
