*FRAMED* ORIGINAL ART – ‘Swagger’, Striated Pardalote

Description

‘Swagger’*

2021
Ink and watercolour
Artwork: 380mm x 380mm
Framed: 500mm x 500mm
by Shannon Dwyer

‘Swagger’ was created using a traditional nib dip pen and ink, along with professional-grade watercolours executed on 425gsm 100% cotton rag watercolour paper. This original artwork includes the ‘Shannon Dwyer Original’ embossment and hand-penned signature validating it as an original artwork of Shannon Dwyer.

Artwork on display and available through Watershed Art Gallery, Hunter Valley. 

Artwork details:
Original watercolour and ink artwork, ‘Swagger’, the Striated Pardalote.*

Not only is this little feathered friend a beautiful mix of colour and stunning patterns, it’s also simply too-cute-to-toot! Shannon has become obsessed with the little flashes of adorable that are Striated Pardalotes. When they perch (for 0.25 seconds) they look as though they’re posing for a fast-forward ‘VOGUE’ shoot! Strike a pose! Shannon had such fun painting this beauty!

Before starting an artwork Shannon researches her subject thoroughly to intimately know its habits, movements, personality and colouring to ensure she can capture it all in her artwork.
One of the bonuses of this research for her art collectors is that her research is then also combined into a summarised paragraph which becomes part of the Certificate of Authenticity.

The Striated Pardalote is found throughout most of Australia, in any habitat with trees or shrubs, favouring eucalypt forests and woodlands most of all and are absent only from the most arid areas. There are four species of Pardalote, which are found only in Australia however, it’s the least colourful, but no less beautiful, Striated Pardalote that is most commonly found of all the pardalote species. Despite being tiny birds (sized at 8.5-12cm), some populations undertake remarkable migratory movements, while others remain in the same area throughout the year. The best-known migratory population breeds in Tasmania and makes regular seasonal movements across Bass Strait, where they mix with various mainland-breeding populations. They forage acrobatically among foliage, feeding on insects and larvae. They especially love to eat the lerps of psyllids that cause substantial damage to eucalypts – making them a vital part of maintaining healthy eucalypt forests with this amazing little natural insecticide. They’re generally in the canopies of tall eucalypts, making them difficult to see, which is why they are more often heard rather than seen.  While feeding in small groups, these birds maintain contact through soft trills and a sharp, astonishingly loud ‘tchip tchip’, which is an iconically characteristic sounds of spring. Both the male and the female striated pardalotes build the nest and nourish/care of the eggs before and after they hatch. The nest is usually placed in hollows in branches or in tunnels in creek banks and road cuttings if tree hollows are not available. The rapid loss of their natural habit, such as; deforestation, land clearing, overgrazing and forest fires, is the main threat to their extinction in the near future. Conservation Status: Secure.

*Artwork price includes signed original artwork, Certificate of Authenticity.