Our Kickstarter for Tim Bird’s Adrift on a Painted Sea has just gone live and we’re really excited to share this gorgeous, moving story with you!
Tim’s been with us since the very start of Avery Hill and it’s been one of our greatest pleasures as a publisher to see him grow as an artist. Adrift on a Painted Sea is his most personal and engaging book yet.
A poignant, thoughtful graphic memoir that explores family, loss, and art through the author’s relationship with his mother, who painted as a hobby throughout her life.
Sue Bird was always painting: botanical art, landscapes, still lifes, and especially the sea.
She took classes, kept countless sketchbooks, and filled the house with art. From their neighborhood to their family trips, all the moments of her life were memorialized in her artwork. Throughout her life, she never sold a piece—she gave art to family and friends, and shared her work online, but never received wider recognition for her work.
This graphic novel by her son, Tim Bird, explores their family life and her creative explorations through a mix of her paintings and Tim’s comics, depicting their relationship and her life from teenagehood to her struggle with cancer at the height of the covid pandemic. After her death, this graphic novel at last showcases her work.
Back the book here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/averyhillpublishing/adrift-on-a-painted-sea-by-tim-bird/
Specifications: 84 pages, softcover with French flaps, 168 x 239mm
Praise for Adrift on a Painted Sea:
“This is such a beautiful and touching work about the persistent power of love, the mirrors of memory and the endless narratives of the sea. When I’d read it I had to stop what I was doing and gaze out of the window for a while until my soul stopped trembling.”
– Ian McMillan
About Tim:
Tim Bird is an illustrator and comic artist based in Winchester, who’s finishing an MA in Illustration at Falmouth University in 2024. He’s published a number of comics through Avery Hill Publishing as well as self-published zines and webcomics such as Rock & Pop, and It’s a Bird’s Life. He’s contributed work to a diverse range of anthologies. His comic From the City to the Sea won best comic at the British Comic Awards in 2015.
Tim’s made some lovely exclusives for the campaign that you can add on at checkout—there’s a behind-the-scenes zine showing the making of the book and a postcard set featuring Sue’s paintings. You can also get copies signed and sketched in by Tim.
We’ve also created a ‘Personal Stories Bundle’ including five Avery Hill titles that we think complement Tim’s book beatifully:
- Follow Me In by Katriona Chapman
- Walking Distance by Lizzie Stewart
- I Love This Part by Tillie Walden
- Barking by Lucy Sullivan
- Sleeping While Standing by Taki Soma
Help support the project here!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/averyhillpublishing/adrift-on-a-painted-sea-by-tim-bird