Jim Moir - Neo Fauna

The new exhibition in Cartwright Hall is 'Neo Fauna' by Jim Moir, a prolific artist more widely known as comedy legend Vic Reeves (part of the Reeves and Mortimer double act with Bob Mortimer.) 

I enjoyed the exhibition very much.  It's hugely varied, with some wildly colourful images, many of them birds, like the long -tailed tits below:

and the well-observed Black Guillemot Frenzy: 

Then there are much more understated but again beautifully observed watercolours. I particularly liked the quartet of curlews: 

'Barn Owl in a woodland' was looser and more impressionistic, and full of atmosphere. I also enjoyed the magpie (below). There are many of them in the trees round where I live and he has captured their 'essence' really well here, I think. Apparently, since he retired from comedy and became a full-time artist, he paints in the morning and then goes for a walk in the afternoon, closely observing the birds and the details of their appearance and behaviour. That careful attention really shows in his work.

Studies of dancers and birds imaginatively echo their movements.

Then there were more surreal and highly coloured offerings, like 'The Exhibitionist' (below) and some rather odd, distorted studies of 'American Couples', which I didn't warm to at all. 

It's rare that you see an artist with such a broad range of styles. I wouldn't normally show so many but felt I needed to do them justice. The exhibition is on until the end of August.