London Artists Celebrate World Migration Day 10th October

London artists celebrate World Migration Day 10th October 2020. We present an online exhibition focusing on birds that migrate each year. Some of them travelling thousands of miles to breed or to feed. …And of course, it’s not just birds that migrate. Sometimes we humans need to migrate too; to find food, or work or refuge from war.

So, from the humble blackbird to the exotic crowned crane, here are some artworks of migrating birds created by some of our very own Skylarks!

Here, below is Eternity a beautiful oil painting about eternal love by London artist Helen Trevisiol Duff. In it we see one red crowned crane, an endangered species in Japan, offering a gingko leaf, the symbol of eternal love, to his life-long partner. Read more details here

London artist Helen Trevisiol Duff loves all wild life, particularly birds. She was asked by Hanwell Zoo in West London to paint a huge mural on one of their walls. The mural is more than 6 feet high.

Play the video to find out what Helen chose to paint.

During the painting period Helen became quite friendly with the cranes as she was allowed into their enclosure.

And here is another crane, the magnificent golden crested crane, shown above. This crane is the national bird of Uganda, and it migrates each year to wetter habitats to nest and rear its young.

We tend to think of penguins preferring cold environments. However, the juvenile African Cape Penguin tends to disperse along the South African  coastline to the west and north. It often migrates to Angola and even as far as Gabon, Congo and Mozambique!

Hummingbirds occupy almost all of North America during the summer months, and remaining tropical at heart, they migrate to Mexico or Central America for the winter.

East Asian swifts migrate from China and Japan in spring and head towards Africa to spend the winter. UK swifts spend most of their lives in the air and migrate through France and Spain to Morocco to take advantage of insect populations there.

Budgerigars in their natural habitat of Australia migrate 250 miles a day in a North to South pattern to find water and feeding grounds. South in spring and North in autumn.

To see more of Helen’s beautiful paintings and to read more about each piece, please visit her online shop

Sarita often includes birds in her work. She sees them as symbols of freedom and messengers of hope. We have chosen two paintings that include migrating swallows.

In “Arts Life” Sarita has used an old newspaper to create a textured background for her mixed media work.

Sarita says; “Swallows can be seen swooping across rooftops and fields all summer, but sightings are short and sweet. They disappear in winter, to escape the cold weather and to follow their main source of food, insects. They make an impressive journey of about 40 days, not resting for even one.”

In this piece Sarita has used old maps of Wales as the background for her work. In this classic image of migration we see the swallows gathering on the telephone wires in preparation for their long flight South.

To see more of Sarita’s work visit her online shop.