Swen Schmitz is an artist and painter working in both small and large formats. He finds answers and inspiration in nature to live a more fulfilling life. He enjoys painting biodiversity, mainly through large-scale murals, creating a great Mural Encyclopedia around the world.
Lola Casas is a teacher and poet who writes mostly for young audiences. Since childhood, she has been fascinated by birds and by the beauty and lightness of their flight.
The book Poble d’ocells immerses us in a rural setting and invites us to get closer to nature and learn to love it through the illustrations by Swen Schmitz Coll and the poems by Lola Casas. Reading it allows us to discover a little more about a group of animals that are very much part of our everyday lives, yet often go unnoticed: birds.
The book also tells the story of the Mural Encyclopedia project, which originated in Ivars d’Urgell from an artistic idea by Swen, a resident of the village, and through his collaboration with the local council. Knowledge of these wild species, with which we so often share our surroundings, has been brought closer to the community through large murals spread throughout the municipality.
Over time, Lola learned about these artworks, and the two met at the village school to get to know each other and plant the seed of an idea that would come to life a few years later: a collection of bird poems portraying the murals, the streets, the people and many everyday scenes through watercolours and BIC pen drawings.
