Abstract birds

Laura Ross
, 22 October 2024
Abstract birds
Jim's exhibition © Gesine Garz

Laura Ross

Communications Officer, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

It's impossible not to notice that artist, designer and writer, Jim Northover has taken over the art wall at the Discovery Centre this month. His abstract interpretation of birds, all of which can be found at the nature reserve, are instantly recognisable despite their simplicity. Bringing a welcome pop of colour, to the slightly greyer days, I caught up with Jim to discover the inspiration behind his latest exhibition.

In a nutshell, how have you got to this point? 

I moved to Rye with our young family in the early 80s, and loved it so much, that I've been here ever since. I’ve always drawn for as long as I can remember. On leaving school I studied art and then graphic design, a path I’ve been on for over 60 years. I've started up and ran an international design firm for many decades and now help organisations build their brands and tell their stories. I'm also a member of the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and Sussex Wildlife Trust. Last year I gave a talk at the Discovery Centre on the artist Paul Nash (1889 - 1946) who lived in Rye and the local area during the 1920s-30s.

You have a passion for nature and art - how do these work alongside each other?

My twin interests run in parallel, sometimes crossing over. Much of my painting and drawing focuses on landscape and the natural environment. I also make abstract and conceptual pieces. Identifying pattern, form and colour are important to a birder, just as they are to a designer. But it’s not only visual art. I write too, often taking inspiration from the world around us, especially birds and other wildlife. One of my poems (No.13 The Bee Orchid) features on the nature reserve’s Poetry Trail. I'm also part of the Rye Harbour Writers, a group of 14 poets that spun out of the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve 'Writer in Residence' a few years ago.

What inspired this collection and how do you create them?

Noticing a Greenfinch one day from my bathroom window as it was perching in a tree, I realised that a flash of green and yellow was enough to identify it. In the same tree a black shape with a touch of grey was recognisably a Jackdaw. From this experience I started playing with different bird shapes and colours, finally selecting a series of distinctive two-colour combinations that were the essence of each bird species. The images are screen-printed by hand – that density of flat colour and surface texture you don’t get with digital technology.

Male Greenfinch
Male Greenfinch © David Kilbey

What do you love most about Rye Harbour Nature Reserve?

Sitting on the beach watching waders fly by or seeing terns dive for sand eels, noting the changing colours of the sea and the sky - that’s hard to beat.

Tell us something about you we might not already know

At home we have a small apple orchard, a wildflower meadow, two beehives, two dogs and a cat.

You can see more of Jim's drawings, prints and paintings here. You can also buy one of his t-shirts and prints designed for Curlew Action here.

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1782646037.09240 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1782646037.12070.0283Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1782646037.12080.0001Server address: 216.73.216.31
1782646037.12090Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1782646037.12090Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/abstract-birds
    [s] => abstract-birds
    [1] => abstract-birds
)
1782646037.12120.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782646037.12210.0009 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1782646037.12430.0022 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1782646037.12490.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1782646037.1270.0021 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22380595
1782646037.12760.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22380595
1782646037.12820.0006 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-06-28 11:27:00' AND saleTo>'2026-06-28 11:27:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1782646037.12970.0015 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='abstract-birds')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-28 11:27:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1782646037.13290.0032 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782646037.13350.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=3531 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-28 11:27:00'
1782646037.13430.0009 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1782646037.1350.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1782646037.13570.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=251 LIMIT 1
1782646037.13630.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=70 LIMIT 1
1782646037.13690.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782646037.13710.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1782646037.13790.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-28 11:27:00' AND postSlug='abstract-birds'
1782646037.15910.0212Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782646037.15980.0007 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1782646037.16140.0016Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1782646037.16160.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1782646037.16230.0007 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1782646037.16390.0015 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782646037.16680.003 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782646037.16750.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782646037.16950.002Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1782646037.16950 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782646037.17030.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782646037.17080.0005 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782646037.17350.0026 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782646037.17450.0011 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782646037.17530.0008 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782646037.17820.0028 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782646037.17910.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1782646037.18120.0022 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1782646037.18170.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782646037.1820.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='28' LIMIT 1
1782646037.18260.0006Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1782646037.18290.0003 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='abstract-birds')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-28 11:27:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1782646037.1850.0021 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782646037.18550.0004 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782646037.1880.0026Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1782646037.18890.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=3531 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1782646037.23830.0494 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1782646037.23850.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782646037.23870.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='28' LIMIT 1
1782646037.23960.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1782646037.24030.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1782646037.24080.0005 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782646037.24280.002 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782646037.24340.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782646037.24510.0017 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782646037.24640.0012 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782646037.2470.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782646037.24750.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782646037.250.0025 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782646037.25050.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782646037.25240.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782646037.25470.0023 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1782646037.25550.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1782646037.25590.0004 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782646037.2580.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782646037.25840.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782646037.26020.0017 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782646037.26180.0016 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782646037.26230.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782646037.26280.0005 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782646037.26480.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782646037.26530.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782646037.26750.0021 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782646037.26870.0013Request time: 0.1793
1782646037.26880Process time: 0.1791
1782646037.26880Memory: 1.6505