Bird on a Wire by Ian Collins

Guy Taplin is a phenomenon. His art is unique and his life reads like an adventure story, by turns astonishing, poignant and hilarious and in this beautifully-illustrated volume, Ian Collins and many witnesses tell the artist's startling story.

Britain's leading bird sculptor is likened by Michael Palin, in the foreword to this book, as a "magician". Certainly there is something of the alchemist about him as, with a minimum of tools and techniques, he turns driftwood and other pieces of discarded timber into stands and flights of birds. With smears of paint, a stretch of highlighted graining to hint at wing or feathering, and a corroded stair rod to suggest a leg, something more than a model image is somehow captured.

Taplin's elemental birds touch us as pure sculpture and as symbols of wild places and of the yearning human need to reconnect with wilderness. Now collected around the world, they are vessels for our dreams.

Born in the East End of London on the eve of World War Two, and evacuated to Herefordshire before returning to Cockney country to roam the woods and hedges of Epping, Guy Taplin had an obsession with birds from the outset. But, after a near-lethal spell in the army, he careered through endless menial jobs, and found brief fame making hippy buckles in Swinging London, before hitting upon his vocation by happy accident.

It is now almost a legend that, while caring for the ornamental waterfowl in Regent's Park, and training to become a Buddhist monk, the Bird Man began on a whim to whittle crude, decoy-like images of his charges in wood, and then never stopped. Over the decades he has perfected his art through perseverance and passion. Bird on a Wire is available at a special discounted price of £25 including postage (normally £29.95 plus postage). Cheques made out to Messum's and posted to Studio Publications, Lords Wood, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, SL7 2QS with a note stating your own name and to qualify for the special price please state that it is in reponse to an article on Southwold Scene.

Artworx welcomes you to the amazing world of Bodycasting.

By taking a cast you have a perfect replica, something to touch, see and cherish and a unique and alternative way to capture precious moments. Further details of this unique art form run by Michelle Payne.