The woodcock is caught in full flight, wings working, the whole body drawn out along the line of the movement so it reads as fast even standing still - so there's nothing settled about the pose.

Woodcock are birds you rarely see well. They spend their days in cover on the woodland floor, and their whole camouflage is that mottled brown plumage - dead-leaf colours, barred and broken up, so they all but vanish against the ground. That colour provides a great deal of character, and it's where the patina comes in: I've brought it up in warm browns, mottled and varied across the surface so it carries the same broken, leaf-litter quality rather than a single flat colour. In a limited edition of 12, signed and with a certificate of authenticity.