The Art of Gamehawking
£49 plus p&p
New Large Format Book
First hand recollections of flying a peregrine falcon
With over 100 illustrations and many full double page spreads
300 x 240mm, 160 pages, hardback
Standard Edition UK Price £49.00 plus £6 UK P&P
or email wildlifeartgallery.com for more information
Also….
Special Limited Edition
Signed and numbered
Limited to 50 copies
Inlayed original linocut on cloth cover
Clam shell case
Original piece of artwork with each copy
20% discount on one painting when original artwork from book is sold
UK Price £475
To order a Special Limited Edition book please email Andrew at wildlifeartgallery@btinternet.com
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Back in 1977, I was given the opportunity to train and fly a Peregrine Falcon. It was this falcon, Tassa, that Ray Turner wrote about in his classic monograph Gamehawk. I produced the line drawings for this book and have always had an idea that one day I would create a series of paintings to accompany it. Thirty years on, and having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, I decided that if I was going to do this, then the time was now. As often happens with this kind of project, once started it took on a life of its own and this book was born.
Memories of experiences I had forty years ago fill the pages; recollections, still vivid, of flying Tassa. The paintings I have produced, in many cases, are not highly finished but are deliberately sketch-like in their execution, giving fleeting glimpses, of pheasants, partridges, ducks and grouse as the falcon strikes them. They are studies from the perspective of the hunter and the hunted.
Extract from the book:
“As soon as she has been told to ‘get on’ Cally knows that there is a pheasant in front of her and she takes off at a breakneck speed, streaking down the edge of the field. As soon as she gets to the spot under the tree, she picks up the scent and charges into the brambles, a pheasant bursting out the other side. Tassa, knows that when the dog is released things are about to happen and she holds her position in anticipation. With Ray and me on either side of the pheasant we begin to shout, the pheasant launches out across the open ground. With the pheasant away our eyes look up to see Tassa like a speck but already on her way down. A few seconds pass and it is obvious by the angle that Tassa is following, the pheasant is not flying directly away from us. I take a quick glance down to see the spaniel, ears flapping in pursuit of the cock, who is about twenty feet up, and trying to return to the hedge by flying in an arc around me. I look back up to be rewarded by the sight of Tassa, still focused on the pheasant, in a near vertical spiralling stoop, with wings closed and her tail making small corrections to her trajectory. The pheasant has no chance of reaching cover, as seconds later Tassa seems to rake over the bird’s head, almost as a warning shot, incredibly, the bird just folds up and hits the ground hard.”
” I have been visiting Andrew weekly since his disease prevented him from driving. On these treasured days I now work alongside him in his studio. From where I sit I can watch his bold brush work and loose style in action. The drama of a falcon dropping like a stone in her stoop. The impact of her talons striking a duck from the air and the culmination of her hunt, mantling her prey, reunited with the earth. I know in his mind he is there, kneeling beside Tassa, a hand on Cally’s back as they too are reunited, bound by the invisible golden thread known only to those who have had the privilege of such a magical relationship.” Jonathan Yule, artist.
Andrew Haslen 