Author Description

Undeniably hyper-realistic, Mr. Taplin's work effortlessly avoids mere visular literalism by means of the subliminal kinesis contained in each piece. His wading birds have a monomaniacal intent to their focus, recalling the murderous gaze of their pterodactyl forebears. Their forms flexed and sprung - charged with an implied energy. That split-second moment of instinctive action, that slow wading waddle, the deliberately tentative step. The raw and eager look of the hunter. Impossible legs half immersed in sedimentary pools reflecting an opaline cloudlessness. Preening. Preoccupied or poised for imminent take-off, the whole scene arrested by a sharp eye then wrought by expert hands, from the flotsam of the North Sea. -- from the Foreword, John Cooper Clarke.