Catherine M. Stewart

 Courtship Colour Studies

These archival inkjet prints are based on scans of songbird specimens in the collection of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia. I have combined the colours of both the male and the female of individual bird species into a single abstract image. With some, I manipulated actual specimen scans using various tools in Photoshop until a lusciously sensual form took shape. With others, I created colour bars using the colour picker to select a wide range of colours from the scans. These colour bars were then manipulated to evoke the feeling of fluttering feathers or the pulsing energy of a life force.

Image size is 14”x14” and edition size 25. Several are exhibited just outside the Intensive Care Unit at Vancouver General Hospital. A similar suite is also installed in the Detwiller Pavilion at UBC.

Copyright © 2022 Catherine M. Stewart. All rights reserved.