Barbara Rae Norridge’s We Are Family celebrates the remarkable social lives of Britain's long-tailed tits, whose close-knit groups provide a fitting subject for the artist's continuing exploration of birds and their relationships with one another. Unlike many garden birds, long-tailed tits often travel in extended family groups, maintaining contact through calls and gathering together for warmth during the colder months. Their cooperative behaviour lends particular meaning to the painting's title. Having spent much of her early life in Africa, Norridge studied at the Johannesburg College of Art Foundation before exhibiting at Lidchi's Art Gallery. Her experiences of the continent's extraordinary wildlife helped establish a lifelong fascination with the natural world. Since settling in Leicestershire in 1992, she has increasingly turned her attention to Britain's native birds, particularly gamebirds, waders and songbirds. Rather than depicting wildlife in isolation, Norridge is drawn to the interactions, habits and individual characters of birds within their natural habitats. In We Are Family, the gathering of long-tailed tits evokes the companionship and mutual dependence that characterise this sociable species.