"I’ve always had a passionate interest in wildlife, conservation and painting both in the UK and around the world and wanted to get involved in raising awareness of not only endangered species but also animal cruelty and mistreatment. This has led to me giving paintings or prints to animal charities and worthy causes to raise funds. It’s very rewarding to know that your work raises awareness for an animal that needs rescuing or is endangered. Quite a lot of my work is sold with a percentage of the sale going to an animal charity.
As an artist for many years I have worked in a variety of mediums producing everything from portraits, architecture, custom painting, murals...the list is almost endless. Through the years I had always enjoyed pet portrait commissions but wanted to take this further. I started with a painting of a sperm whale, quite a leap from fur and feathers!
Since 2007 I have been concentrating solely on animals and wildlife but I wanted the work to have my own style and technique. Every project I work on I try to push materials and substrates a bit further. In 2010 I entered the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year competition with the aforementioned painting depicting a sperm whale. The work reached the final and was displayed at the Mall Galleries in London as part of the week long event.
This was my ‘eureka’ moment, a combination of the right paint (E'tac fluid acrylics and ink), the right surface (Kaolin clay covered board from Ampersand) and experimental techniques with the airbrush and various erasers and blades, since then I have developed these techniques further to produce the kinds of textures and ‘life’ I had been looking for."
