Above picture: With her own art as a backdrop, Kitty Harvill holds a copy of WISDOM the Midway Albatross which she illustrated
Back in 2012, I requested a review of a new book for children about Wisdom, the now 70-something year-old Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis of the USA’s Midway Atoll. Wisdom is reckoned to be the world’s oldest known wild bird, first banded as an adult in 1956 and still going strong. Previously, I had got in touch with the book’s illustrator Kitty Harvill, a world-renowned wildlife artist, to request use of her book paintings in the review. This led to a remarkable collaboration, and a valued online friendship, that has produced over 500 artworks featuring albatrosses and petrels by around 100 members of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN). These artworks have been (and continue to be) used by the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) in support of every World Albatross Day celebrated on 19 June, since its inauguration in 2020. Kitty’s artwork for World Albatross Day has also been used to create several freely available posters.
“Lost in a Rising Sea”. Watercolour by Kitty Harvill in support of World Albatross Day 2022 and its theme of “Climate Change”; after a photograph by Koa Matsuoka, poster design by Michelle Risi
In 2020, Kitty was living primarily in Brazil but in 2022 she and her husband relocated to her hometown of Clarksville, Tennessee in the USA. That year she received the Simon Combes Conservation Award of the Artists for Conservation, the leading collective of artists painting in support of the environment, of which she is a Signature Member.
“Seabird Sunset”. A White-chinned Petrel in flight painted for World Albatross Day by Kitty Harvill; after a photograph by Dimas Gianuca
Kitty will join the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage to the Prince Edward Islands in January next year as its Artist-in-residence. Kitty will be accompanied aboard by her husband, Christoph Hrdina, who co-founded ABUN with Kitty in 2016. While aboard Kitty will set up her easel in a public space and paint the seabirds she sees flying past the cruise ship, and interact with interested passengers as she paints. She will also give a talk on creating wildlife art during the voyage.
Kitty writes to MFM News: “I fell in love with albatrosses in 2012 when I created the illustrations for ‘WISDOM, the Midway Albatross’. That was a love for Laysan Albatrosses … and that love only grew with our first ABUN World Albatross Day Project in 2020 as I studied and created watercolours of all 22 species while encouraging and motivating our ABUN members to support these amazing creatures with their own beautiful works of art. The upcoming possibility to see these stunning seabirds up close and personal and serve as Artist-in-residence for the MFM Project on the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage, painting their beauty, magnificence, emotion and energy, will no doubt be an inexpressible joy and a highlight of my career as a conservation artist. My deepest gratitude for being entrusted with this honour and experience.”
Kitty Harvill (right) holds a bronze statuette of two Wildebeest, sculpted by South Africa’s Peter Gray, part of her award received from Artists for Conservation President and Founder, Jeff Whiting (left)
The MFM Project is excited to be collaborating with Kitty to help raise awareness of the plight being faced by Marion Island’s seabirds from the introduced House Mice – in what is a novel way for the project. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!
“Sheltered”. A Grey Petrel chick in its burrow on Marion Island by Kitty Harvill; after a photograph by Ben Dilley
John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 06 November 2024
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Clouds over the inshore waters of Marion Island; photograph by Dawn Touissant
The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate. For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.
