A new exhibition featuring artwork by Jim Moir has launched at the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight.
From garden birds to seabirds, Dawn to Dusk: Birds celebrates the magic and majesty of many of the UK’s most-loved feathered friends, inviting us to appreciate their brilliance and importance through the beauty of paint.
Around 45 of Moir’s paintings have gone on display at the Wirral gallery, some of which have been created exclusively for the exhibition.
Many visitors will be familiar with Moir’s work following the successful Sky Arts series, Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir. This is the first time that the artist’s paintings have been displayed in a national gallery, with most pieces available for purchase.
Born in Leeds in 1959, Moir grew up in Darlington. Both of his parents were artistic – his mother was a painter and his father was a woodturner. He was immersed in the art world as a child, regularly attending craft fairs and galleries with his parents. He achieved his first taste of success at the age of 10, winning a competition on a cornflakes box by painting a combine harvester. He went on to study at art school.
Growing up in a rural area, the natural world was Moir’s playground as a child. He and his friends would search for birds and their nests in hedgerows. After his father gifted him a set of very heavy binoculars from the Second World War, he became more interested in watching the birds from afar.
In a special interview with YM Liverpool ahead of the launch, Moir reflected on the significance of staging his first exhibition in a national gallery, and here on Merseyside no less.
A Salon of Curlews over the marsh from Dawn to Dusk: Birds by Jim Moir at Lady Lever Art Gallery. Image courtesy of Jim Moir.
“I’m massively proud to be here – among the likes of Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and all those Pre-Raphaelites – even Turner is in here somewhere, lurking. These are the artists I’ve always been a fan of, and now I’m here next to them, as a sort of support act.”
Moir, who is perhaps still best known to many as his comedy alter ego Vic Reeves, described the invitation to exhibit at the gallery as an unexpected honour. “The Lady Lever approached me, which was a great privilege. With such a fantastic collection here, I thought, ‘How can you say no?’
“What I’m doing here is showing people the way I see things. You’re seeing the natural world through my eyes – which is what all art really is.”
Among the gallery’s permanent works is one that had a profound influence on Moir during his formative years: William Holman Hunt’s The Scapegoat. “When I was at art school, I used to stare at it in a textbook for hours, reading about how he painted it and the madness he went through to create it.”
For Moir, the exhibition marks a new chapter in his career – but not necessarily a departure from his past. “It’s not that I got bored of doing television – it just kind of ran its course. I’ve always lived my life doing what I enjoy, and now I’ve returned to what I’ve always done: painting and sculpture, but full-time.”
And how does he feel about sharing this different side of himself on such a prominent stage? “It’s great, but I don’t really think of it as saying, ‘Here you are, this is what I can do.’ People can come and see the exhibition and decide for themselves whether they like it or not. Some will, some won’t – and that’s fine. It’s the same for me when I look at art. But I’m very, very pleased with what I’m doing now – and I’m very happy with life.”
Moir hasn’t ruled out sketching Merseyside’s most iconic pair of birds during his time in town either. “I always carry little pieces of paper and travel paints with me, so I’ll probably head towards the Liver Building.”
