London Animal Stars
A series of prints featuring animal myths and legends of London as star constellations, informed by vintage celestial maps of the skies and Uranias mirror star chart cards form the 19th century. They come as individual prints or incorporated into ‘North circular’ and ‘South circular’ prints or all in one in ‘Celestial creatures of the city’. The ghost image of the River Thames in the background of many of the images links them all together (inspired by how the milky way is often depicted in antique star constellation prints).
‘Constellations’ featured include ‘Cetus’ (Sea Monster) – the River Thames Whale; ‘Lynx’ – The Beast of Barnet; ‘Canes Venatici’ (The Hunting Dogs) – Fenton the YouTube star who chased deer through Richmond Park; ‘Cameleopardalis’ (Giraffe)- The Walworth Giraffes, among 16 altogether.
All the images are from original my own drawings and the coloured ones I handcoloured with watercolours.