The artist with the feather-light touch who paints on discarded swan plumes

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:33 PM on 24th March 2009

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Painted onto elegant swan quills, these beautiful examples of feather-art really are fit for a Queen.

Painstakingly created by English artist Ian Davie, each individual piece painted over the royally protected bird's feathers can take up to one week to complete.

Using feathers collected during the regal birds' annual moult from a swannery near to his home, Ian has spent the past four years perfecting his craft.

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Painstaking: Ian Davie, 44, can take up to a week to create each of his fine detailed scenes painted onto swan feathers

After cleaning the often dirty quills and individually straightening them out with tweezers, Mr Davie, 44, who lives in a converted farmhouse in Snowdonia National Park, Wales, then begins the arduous process of painting onto the swans discarded feathers.

He said: 'I already have sketched what I want to achieve before the painting begins.

'I only have a canvas that is around one foot long and around three inches wide so I have to know exactly the course my painting will take.

'I use what in artistic circles is called a primer, which goes over the area I am going to paint on, then when that is laid down I begin to paint the scene of sketch that I have planned.'

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Delicate: A pheasant sits on a log and an otter chases his next meal in examples of Mr Davie's work. The artist only took up painting five years ago and uses a special acrylic paint to avoid damaging the feathers

Incredibly, the former taxidermist, originally from Bolton, has only been painting for five years.

'I never picked up a brush before my 40th birthday,' he said.

'I had a rather chequered work history before my art took off that included marketing and design, taxidermy, farming and working as a gamekeeper in and around Snowdonia.

'I eventually started with a traditional canvas, five years ago and discovered to my surprise that I was quite adept at painting.

'My experience outdoors in Wales and in a strange way with the taxidermy have all helped to inform my animal and landscape art.'

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This work depicting bullfinches is, unsurprisingly, called Bullfinch Five Feather. Mr Davie was inspired to paint feathers when he saw the feather art of the Maori people in New Zealand

However, it was only after he had completed work on his converted farmhouse in the wilds of Snowdonia in 2005 that his art came into focus.

'That house took me ten years to complete,' Mr Davie said.

'I then went on a very fortuitous holiday to New Zealand where I met my wife Tracey and most importantly observed the feather art of the Maori people.

'A lightbulb went on in my mind when I made the connection and realised that in my time in Wales I had observed hundreds of swan feathers on the ground in Wales, which were literally all blank canvasses.'

Four years on, and his feathered art sells for around £500 to £700 per intricate piece.

'Over the years I have experimented and am continually trying to perfect my work,' he said.

'I now put together five feathers in a row to create a larger canvas for me to paint on and these are now selling for up to £1,800.

'The reaction to my work has indeed been totally positive and well received.'

Mr Davie uses a special acrylic paint that protects and coats the feather, and a specialised 000-size brush to fill in the finer details.

He said: 'These feathers come from the birds' enormous wingspan and therefore using an oil based paint would corrupt the integrity of the feather.

'I asked an expert from the Natural History Museum in London how long my art would last and they replied that feathers had been found totally intact inside the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs.'

Mr Davie's work has since been exhibited at the Welsh Museum of Modern Art and he has been asked to become the artist in residence at the Nature and Art Museum in Gloucestershire.

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