Wildlife Painting Of The Week

Springtime Wildlife In Paint

Follow the seasons with a painting a week

As blossom emerges and birds begin to prepare their nests for the breeding season ahead, my weekly choice of paintings reflect the mood of hope in the air. Keep checking in each week for a new painting to reflect the season.

Click here to look back at my wildlife painting of the week winter choices.

May 15th 2019

Colourful Kingfisher

I enjoyed mixing the brilliant blue and green paints onto my palette for this painting. Kingfishers are like jewels and I wanted to get across the way they light up the countryside. This painting was inspired by an incredible experience watching a pair throughout their fascinating courtship process and then - via a specially adapted hide - seeing them lay their eggs underground.

Click here to read more about how I watched kingfishers inside their nest.

May 8th 2019

Hedgehog Curled Up

Wildlife painting of the week

Hedgehog | Limited Edition Print | Shop Now

This week is Hedgehog Awareness Week. It is incredible to think that these once-common creatures now face extinction. You can do your bit to help by leaving a wild area for them to shelter and opening a small gap in garden fences so that they can roam safely. These prickly creatures are so lovable. I painted this small hoglet after rescuing it from a trap in my garden.

Click here to read more about how I persuaded it to pose for its portrait.

May 1st 2019

Yellowhammer On May Blossom

Wildlife painting of the week

yellow hammer on maythorn wildlife photo of the week

Yellowhammer | Limited Edition Print | Shop Now

Today is May Day so I am posting this print from my painting of a yellowhammer perched on May blossom. May blossom, or May thorn, is the common name for hawthorn, the white flowers foaming over countryside hedgerows in late spring. Listen out for yellowhammers singing from the tops of trees and bushes at this time of year. Their song sounds like they are saying: "A little bit of butter and no cheeeese."

Listen to it on the following short video of bird song:

https://youtu.be/O5gZNCm05-U

April 24th 2019

Stoat Alert

Wildlife painting of the week

Stoat On Alert | Acrylic Painting | More like this

I've been studying a family of stoats in my garden with something of an obsession. My take on this five-year focus on these common, but little-known, mammals features in BBC Wildlife Magazine this month. This is one of the paintings I produced following this extensive study. Click here to read the article in BBC Wildlife and find out about how I followed six generations of stoats. Also see my photographs and a 'family tree' of the individual stoats living in my garden.

April 17th 2019

Lapwing Chick

Wildlife painting of the week

Lapwing Chick | Limited Edition Print | Shop Now

I used acrylic and pencil for this lapwing chick. My painting follows the moment I actually watched this chick emerge from its egg! A perfect painting to share with you in time for Easter. And the story is interesting too. I was watching the mother lapwing nesting on a set-aside field in East Yorkshire and was so privileged to witness this moment. Click here to read the full story.

April 10th 2019

Three's Trouble

Wildlife painting of the week

Three's Trouble | Limited Edition Print | Shop Now

Fox cubs begin emerging from their underground dens at this time of year. Look out for discarded bones and other 'toys' around an earth for signs that there are cubs now. I painted this after watching a vixen with her three playful cubs living underneath a Wendy House in a suburban garden. Click here to read the full story.

April 3rd 2019

Kingfisher Courtship

Wildlife painting of the week

Kingfishers are courting now. Normally solitary birds they have to overcome an instinctual aversion of each other to mate. The male will fish for the female and then offer her his catch as a gift. To tell the difference between males and females, look for a line of orange on the lower beak of the female, like a streak of lipstick. I painted this after building a kingfisher nest rigged with hidden cameras so that I could see the chicks hatch inside their nest.

Click here to see my rare kingfisher footage and read more about this kingfisher pair and their unusual courtship process.

March 27th 2019

Wren On Cherry Blossom

Wildlife painting of the week

Wren On Cherry Blossom | Fine Art Print | Shop Now

The cherry trees are bursting with blossom and the birds have begun to sing in the season so I thought to pose a singing wren on this branch was the perfect composition from spring.

March 20th 2019

Heron

Wildlife Painting of the Week

Heron, limited edition print | See similar

A grey heron is a beautiful subject to paint. It always strikes an elegant pose and its long graceful neck and black, white and grey plumage offer such fluid lines. Look out for herons now in huge communal nests known as heronries.

Click here to read about my experiences watching herons at an ancient heronry.

March 13th 2109

Avocets - Perfect Pair

Wildlife Painting of the Week

Avocets | Original Acrylic Painting |Framed size: 23.5" x 31.5" |Image size: 13.75" x 20.75" | Shop Now

It was the way the sweeping curve of one bird's beak echoed the round of its mate's belly that caught my eye when I chose to paint this scene. Avocets are so graceful to paint. I love the symmetry of their black and white plumage. Here I have set these lines against a simple backdrop of blue water fading into the blue of the sky.

Did you know that avocets are the symbol of the RSPB because saving these beautiful birds from extinction was this organisation's first success story? Click here to read more.

March 6th 2019

Nuthatch

Wildlife Painting of the Week

Nuthatch | Oils | See similar

This beautiful slate-blue bird gets its name for is fondness for nuts, which it holds in its claws and carefully chisels open. The ‘hatch’ comes from the old French word ‘hache’ meaning axe or hatchet. But you are more likely to see them scurry down tree trunks in search of insects. I used oils to pick out the beautiful blue of its feathers.