Elizabeth Butterworth’s New Collaboration With Artfund

Elizabeth Butterworth features in two new documentary clips for Art Fund, as part of their new campaign The Wild Escape.

The Wild Escape is a major new project run by Art Fund, uniting hundreds of museums and schools in a celebration of UK wildlife and creativity. Supported by Arts Council England, the project aims to inspire hundreds of thousands of children to visit museums and respond creatively to the threat to the UK’s natural environment by looking for animals featured in museum collections and creating their own wildlife artworks. 

As one of the world's leading bird painters, Elizabeth Butterworth was selected to participate in this project. She features in two short films, which are linked below. Other participating artist include FKA Twigs, Es Devlin, Heather Phillipson, Rana Begum, Mollie Ray, Yinka Shonibare, Tai Shani, Claire Twomey, Mark Wallinger, Angela Palmer, Bob and Roberta Smith amongst many others.

In the first film, Butterworth praises the new bird collections at the Natural History Museum, that have both inspired her work and proved invaluable sources of research. She comments on the glamorous nature of these avian subjects and encourages aspiring artists to visit museums to find out what inspires and excites them.

 

For BBC Bitesize (an online learning platform) Butterworth discusses her artistic process. Whilst working on a drawing of a feather she comments on its structure and how she achieves a three dimensional effect, using layers of gouache to recreate the feather's varied textures and shadow.

The Wild Escape is made possible by lead support from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants, with additional support from Art Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Kusuma Trust, Foyle Foundation and a group of generous individuals and trusts.