Artist Ben Green features in the gallery this January & February
Ben Green is a local artist who has spent many hours looking out across the Washes at the magnificent spectacle of wildfowl and waders, sketching them and painting them in watercolour and oil.
Working as a volunteer swan counter at WWT Welney has allowed him privileged access to the reserve - with the chance to get as close as possible to the many birds that gather here in winter, as well as those that breed here in summer.
Ben captures the character of each bird - not just intricate feather details, but a certain expression or movement that belongs to each one, and which separates it from the rest. Careful study through telescope and binoculars result in pages of drawings - notes that can be the foundation for paintings back in the studio.
Influenced by the great French Impressionist painters of the nineteenth century, as well as modern wildlife artists from around the world, Ben tries to bridge the gap between art and illustration, hoping to combine the aesthetic with the informative. His work is regularly published in the periodical British Birds and various county bird reports.
This exhibition is a collection of portraits more than anything else - a reflection of the wealth of diversity that gives Welney its beauty.
