108cm x 90cm. Coloured pencil on Fabriano Artistico cotton paper, mounted in relief.

The inspiration for this came one winter a few years ago when my wife & I happened to be cycling through Brompton Cemetery in London when a flash of blue in between the tomb stones caught our eyes. On investigation we discovered two very large hyacinth macaws just ambling around one particular grave. What was already a very surreal sight was all the more peculiar considering the grave had a small blue plastic bird at the end of a stick that was planted next to the tombstone. We thought of it as nothing more than a strange coincidence as we were watching the creatures waddling around it. Further away a man seemed to emerge from nowhere as we hadn’t noticed him until then. Noticing that we were transfixed by these two magnificent macaws, he introduced himself as their current owner. He then explained that he frequently took them for walks around Brompton Cemetery as this was where there previous owner had been buried, which explained the plastic blue bird. The curiosity and intelligence these macaws were seeming to exhibit was remarkable. One of them even came over to stand on my shoe! The most incredible thing though was that they seemed to know exactly where their previous owner was buried and were very familiar with the grave. They showed no interest of being anywhere else. It’s not a bike ride I’ll ever forget.