Jim Moir unveils first art exhibition at Lady Lever Art Gallery

You may think asking an artist to choose a favourite piece of work is akin to a request to pick a favourite child but Jim Moir doesn’t hesitate.

“The cormorants,” he says nodding to a large canvas hung on the wall of the Lady Lever Gallery, one of 45 pieces of his work featuring in his new exhibition, Dawn to Dusk: Birds by Jim Moir.

“It’s been hanging in my studio for a long time and it’s one of my favourites. And not just because they look like Liver Birds!”

Jim, known to many for his comedic work under the stage name of Vic Reeves, is clearly thrilled to see his exhibition thoughtfully staged across three rooms in the Port Sunlight venue

It is, after all, the first time his paintings have been displayed in a national gallery, a collection of exquisite canvases depicting a range of British birds, some works created exclusivity for the Lady Lever and most available to buy. 

He said:

“It’s an honour to be exhibiting at Lady Lever; it’s a truly unique gallery that’s brimming with masterpieces,”

He may have achieved national treasure status for his talent for surreal humour – he and comedy partner Bob Mortimer have been listed as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy – but it was art which came first.

Born in Leeds in 1959, Jim grew up in Darlington. Both of his parents were artistic – his mother was a painter and his father a woodturner.

He achieved his first taste of success at the age of ten, winning a competition on a cornflakes box by painting a combine harvester.  

“When I was a boy kids were either into football or they set off on their own into the countryside. I was that kid. Then I’d come home and try to capture what I’d seen”

His interest in the natural world intensified after his father gave him a set of binoculars from the Second World War, prompting a deepening passion for bird watching.

Now 66 and living in Kent, this connection to the countryside has remained and informs his art – although he insists he needs to see his feathered subject before he can capture it on canvas.

“I’m at home in the country. I get up early, go out and take photos and then come back to the studio. But I still need to see that bird before I can paint it.”

There are other projects in the pipeline, including painting watercolours of food items ahead of a forthcoming exhibition in Dartmouth.

But birds remain his passion perhaps because, as he admits, how they think and see the world remains a mystery.

“Birds are always the constant; everything else is a bit of fluff.”

•  Dawn to Dusk: Birds by Jim Moir is at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight from June 14 to November 2. Entrance is free.   

Find out more about Dawn to Dusk on the Lady Lever Art Gallery website.

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