The average diary entry can be a bit mundane. ‘Palm Sunday. Ate bread rolls and coffee.’ Fran Giffard, the latest Masterworks artist in residence, has a cure for that, insert a colourful bird.

Next month she will be holding an exhibition of her work, a series of birds done in aquarelle, a form of watercolours. The show will be called A Myriad of Birds and the art work will be painted over used Moleskine brand diary pages. Moleskine is an expensive and much coveted brand of diary and notebook.

She particularly likes painting over Moleskine because the diary often contains many visually interesting pages to work with such as time zone pages, and conversions.

“Moleskine sent me lots of different diary pages,” she said. “They are very nurturing.”

She received her first Moleskine diary as a Christmas present. At first, she was a little nervous to paint in it, as the diaries aren’t cheap.

“I was so nervous about messing up that I kept messing up,” she said. “I started practising with a diary from the year before. I liked the parallel of the birds that I was doing, then the mundane text. I just continued doing it. It has taken off.”

When she applied for the Masterworks residency she was told that she didn’t have to produce anything Bermuda themed, but they wanted her to make the most of the residency.

“So my brief was to draw birds over diary pages that reference Bermuda and my time here,” Miss Giffard said.

Although there are many exotic birds depicted, there will also be many Bermuda characters in the exhibition. For example, a St George’s resident invited Miss Giffard home to meet his parrot, Terry the macaw. The blue and gold parrot soon had his own diary page. There are also cardinals, blue birds, two species of flamingos and a cahow in the show. Some of the birds are not typically found in Bermuda, but their plumage reflects the colours of the Island.

“For the Bermuda series I don’t repeat the birds at all,” she said. “Each painting is a challenge in getting the colours right and trying to capture the nature of the bird itself.”

She studied art at Camberwell College of Arts in London and interned with Mat Collishaw who is well known for being part of an arts group called Young British Artists (YBA) in the United Kingdom. For her final university project she drew every species of vulture.

Since she has been in Bermuda she has been inspired to change her focus.

“I went to the Aquarium,” she said. “I had forgotten what beautiful fish you have in Bermuda. I think that will be my next subject.”

If Miss Giffard, 26, looks a little familiar, it’s because she is a former resident. She attended the Bermuda High School for Girls between 2002 and 2008. Her father, Ben Giffard, works at Fidelity International.

“It is lovely to be here,” she said. “I have been living in London. It was nice to be here at this time because I was able to go to the BHS Torch Bearer Ceremony.”

Her show opens at Masterworks on May 16. Framing for the show is being sponsored by Jardine Matheson.

On May 17, Miss Giffard will be giving a workshop in working with aquarelles.

She has already had several shows in London including one on Grosvenor Street in Mayfair, London in 2012 and one on the Kings Road in London in 2013. Her last solo show in London was called Thirty-Seven Birds and was at the Sloupe, on Nightingale Lane in February.

Her next show will be in November in Manchester at the Cornerhouse. She also plans to exhibit at The Other Art Fair in London later this year.

To learn more about Miss Giffard see her website at www.frangiffard.com. For more information on Masterworks see www.bermudamasterworks.com.