Little Wattlebird

Part of an ongoing series celebrating birds that visit my backyard and are native to our beautiful country, this mixed media painting is constructed from salvaged paper, acrylic paint and adhesive.

It portrays a little wattlebird in vivid, layered colour, with torn fragments from books, magazines, and packaging combined with a little paint to create feathers, light, and depth.

The background features a handmade paper adhered to a birch panel on a sturdy pinewood frame.

Finished with two coats of high-gloss varnish, the surface has a sleek, glass-like sheen that enhances depth and makes the colours truly pop. The edges are painted white, so the piece is ready to hang as is, or you can choose to add a frame through Bluethumb during purchase.

Thanks for checking it out.
Cheers,
Darren

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Based near Wollongong on the NSW East Coast of Australia, Darren King is a multidisciplinary artist working across collage, printmaking, mixed media, and painting. Over the past five years, he has honed a distinctive visual language that merges traditional and contemporary techniques.

Trained in Fine Arts, cartooning, illustration, graphic design, and screen printing, King combines elements from each of these disciplines to create bold, textural, and visually engaging works. Since refocusing on original mixed media art in 2021, he has developed a particular passion for collage.

Working primarily with recycled and repurposed materials - including discarded magazines, junk mail, maps, paper bags, and vintage books—King transforms the everyday into vibrant, layered compositions. His art captures the beauty of the ordinary and evokes a playful nostalgia, celebrating the local, the joyous, the tasty or the long-forgotten.

King’s work has been featured on Selling Houses Australia (Annandale 2025), earned multiple art awards, and been exhibited in numerous group shows and art prizes.
His artworks are held in private collections worldwide.