What do seagulls mean to you?

Seagulls Stole My Shades 1 by Andrew Burns Colwill

Seagulls Stole My Shades 2 by Andrew Burns Colwill

When you think of the seaguls in the paintings above what thoughts come to mind?  A walk by water, a happy childhood memory, the sound of summer? or something different? If you live in, or have visited Bristol, you may notice the docks and the cranes of Bristol's Harbourside.  I find it interesting what pictures evoke for people, a memory, a feeling, a thought or it just touches us on some 'other' level. 

Some people may wonder why the seaguls are carrying sunglasses and some people will want to know the answer - for others it will say something to them and they want to enjoy their own meaning.  

The two seaguls paintings are from Andrew Burns Colwill's latest body of work 20/50 Vision: Tomorrow's Habitat.  The collection is the artists vision and comentary of where we may be environmentally, socially and politically by 2050.  However, some of the pieces like this one also have a personal story of change, of seeing the world differently, of things from his own journey which have led him to producing this body of work.  When the exhibition is in a venue then a handwiten board accompanies these paintings.  It reads: 

 

'A seagull stole my sunglasses once.

A seagull stole my sunglasses twice.

Could not afford another pair.

So I stopped wearing sunglasses....

Now I see a lot more, especially at night.....

Thanks seagulls.'

 

So you could say these paintings are about insight on a number of different levels.  What I love about Andrew's work is that even with the words people will find their own meaning, but if we also want to pay attention we can also hear the artist's words behind his work and listen to our own thoughts.

Insight, reality, power of being present - it is left to the viewer to have their own relationship with his work.

 

Signed prints of Andrew's Seaguls are printed to fit on A3 paper with a white border.