An exhibition of birds in flight is brightening the walls of The Finch Cafe for the month of September.
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The collection includes 12 native species to Katherine, in vivid colours, to coincide with the Katherine Bird Festival.
Inspired by the wildlife which visits her backyard each afternoon as the sun begins to set, artist, Mandy Tootell said she is hoping her art evokes appreciation for the environment and our surroundings.
"Sometimes birds can seem like a pest, but we need to realise we are living in their environment," she said.
By day Mrs Tootell is the coordinator of the Katherine Isolated Children's Service, not-for-profit organisation which travels an area of 760,000 square kilometres across the Top End to deliver playgroups for children who are socially or geographically isolated.
From before she can remember, the need to be creative has always simmered in the background.
She is the Artist in Residence at the Territory Wildlife Park, and is working towards a major exhibition.
"Most of my work lately has been about environment, you tend to respond to where you are living," she said.
On the Wing, her latest collection of work put together over a month is a mixture of ink and water colour "splattered for artistic effect," she said.
The birds, there is a corella, galah, a blue winged kookaburra and a cockatoo for example, are cut from fabric and sewed to the background.
"I did a workshop with Kerryn Taylor on how to use free motion sewing and then applied that technique to my arts practice on paper," she said.
"It is like drawing with thread.
"There is a pile of stuff at home that didn't work, but I was practicing drawing the feather formation with thread as a challenge, and it worked well."
Katherine has a legion of bird species which are better seen out of town on properties void of predators, like cats, Mrs Tootell said.
"Living in Katherine and having all the wildlife is inspiring, they come to my garden every afternoon and drink from my water troughs," she said.
"I enjoy watching them, I think one of the reasons we live out of town is so we can have the wildlife in such close proximity.
"I'm working from my surroundings."
The exhibition, which is not having an opening, will be on display at the Finch Cafe until the end of September.
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