Starling murmuration:
Northern Lights wrapped in feather

Images: Alta, Norway and Dorset wetlands.

Moon, Murmuration, Wave — a small painting of a murmuration over the sea at Cogden — MURMURATION SEA. Cogden Nature Reserve. 2021. Acrylic and debris on cotton rag paper. 16 × 22 cm paper.

Frances Hatch Murmuration Gold painting — MURMURATION GOLD. 2025. Lodmoor Nature Reserve. Mere materials with watercolour and acrylic on cotton rag paper. 27 × 130 cm paper.

Frances Hatch Northern Lights and Lights of Storekorsnes — NORTHERN LIGHTS AND LIGHTS OF STORESKORSNES. Alta Fjord. 2016. Acrylic gesso, gouache and watercolour on handmade cotton rag paper. 20 × 16 cm paper.

Frances Hatch Twin Murmuration — TWIN MURMURATION. Lodmoor. Weymouth. 2025. Gouache and mere materials on cotton rag paper. 16 × 21 cm paper. Available to view.

FRANCES HATCH NORTHERN NOVEMBER WAVE — NORTHERN NOVEMBER WAVE. Acrylic gesso, gouache and watercolour on handmade cotton rag paper. 28 × 14 cm paper.

Frances Hatch Murmuration Air — MURMURATION AIR. December 2024. Acrylic and mere materials on fragment of cotton rag paper. 29 × 28 cm paper.

Frances Hatch Breeze Murmuration — BREEZE MURMURATION. 2025. 95 × 134 cm paper. Acrylic and debris on cotton rag paper.

MURMURATION MOON

begins

specked

                                   egg of air
                                         grows wings
                                                   and multiplies

                           a    sparse    gathering    becomes    Glastonbury
                                                                                                 headlining the air
                                                                                      balletic
                                                                 bird

brained
northern

light festooned

with feather
dusk chill turns

beaks
mud

ward

feathers

funnel
following

the sun

under water

somewhere

chatterlings of reed stalks

nattering