The Natural Eye
Mall Galleries, London SW1
4 stars
THIS Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibition brings together the very best of current practitioners’ work and what a selection it is.

Gone are the days of countryside kitsch, sentimentality and shoddy observation. These are artists who know their countryside and have an assured technical command of their particular medium.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 90 per cent of the works here are of birds. Their sheer variety, colours and shapes are an obvious attraction to artists, offering innumerable opportunities to play around with shapes, patterns and colour and on show are oils, watercolours, woodcuts, prints, sculptures and drawings.

They range from photographic naturalism, through realism to abstraction.

The exhibition also brings together a number of artists working in conjunction with the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology in order to document and highlight the conservation work of these organisations.

John Foker is fascinated by the repetitive patterns he discerns in birds’ plumage and how it reflects their habitats, while Keith Shackleton captures the icy glare of light off the sea which frames the silhouettes of sooty albatrosses.

David Gillmor has delicate pastel-coloured linocuts, reminiscent of William Morris wallpaper design blocks, while Yvette Rawson raises a smile with her cheeky wire and textile pigeon sculptures.

The joys of the natural world are captured by these sensitive and capable artists in a free exhibition well worth visiting.

Runs until November 8, details:
mallgalleries.org.uk

John Green