Sarah Arnett

Artist: Sarah Arnett

Title: The Magpie and its Golden Egg

Medium: Plate - Bone china & 24ct gold leaf, egg - 24ct gold leaf

About:

“The Magpie, renowned for its love of shiny objects, is illustrated proudly wearing a golden necklace. Through delicate, hand-drawn lines, I aimed to capture the bird’s inquisitive and mischievous nature, as though it is posing with treasures it has collected from distant lands, or neighbours open windows!  Balanced on the plate sits a single golden egg, its surface luxuriously covered in radiant 24 ct gold leaf.

The egg’s glow suggests that the magpie, having indulged in too much glittering loot, has somehow—and quite proudly—laid this extraordinary golden egg.

The interplay between the magpie, adorned in its glistening jewellery, and the gleaming egg plays on the bird’s mythical association with wealth and beauty. In crafting this piece, I wanted to evoke a sense of whimsy, where the magpie’s obsession with collecting has transformed the natural world into something enchanting and surreal. This narrative invites viewers to see the bird not just as a collector of treasures, but as a creature whose hoarding of shiny objects has taken on a life of its own, blurring the lines between the ordinary and the magical. The ceramic plate serves as both a canvas and a stage, bringing this imaginative tale to life.”

www.saraharnett.co.uk