My Painting of the Week | Spring 2020

I paint in a detailed, precise style using both acrylic and oils to reproduce each feather or whisker. I want my paintings to be as lifelike as possible and consequently, I spend much of my time watching and photographing animals in the wild before I pick up my paintbrushes. The results are detailed portraits of an animal I know well. Follow the links that accompany each painting to read their individual stories. If you would like to browse all my fine art paintings and limited edition prints, click here.

Follow this link to see a weekly update of the photographs that inspire my artwork: Photo of the Week.

---

May 25th, 2020 Tree Sparrows  Wildlife Painting of the Week

Tree sparrows are noisy, social birds known for their cheerful chatter as they busy themselves in hedgerows. Here in Yorkshire, we are fortunate to have a few tree sparrow ‘strongholds, but elsewhere in Britain these birds have fallen silent. When I first moved to my current home and gallery there were no sparrows at all, so I planted hedgerows and dug water ponds to attract them.  

Click here to read how I designed my garden for tree sparrows & meet the models for the painting below

 

---

May 18th, 2020 Lapwing with Chicks Wildlife Painting of the Week

I’ve just finished this painting of a lapwing with its newly-hatched chicks. This commission is now on its way to its new owner in the South West. Before I started to paint, I showed the customer photographs I had taken in 2011 and we agreed on a composition. I then kept him up to date with the progress of the painting via weekly WhatsApps. If you have a favourite species you would like me to paint, get in touch and I’ll put some composition ideas together for you.

Click here to read about the day I watched this lapwing on its nest

 

---

May 11, 2020 Kingfisher on Willow Wildlife Painting of the Week 

The sight of a kingfisher is often no more than a fleeting flash of blue as it darts along a riverbank, making it very difficult to study in detail to be able to paint. So for the picture below, I set up a hide and built an artificial nest to watch a pair as they fished, courted, and raised their young inside their nest. 

Click here to read abut my this project

Click here to see all my kingfisher paintings 

 

---

May 4th, 2020 Pheasant in Bluebells Wildlife Painting of the Week 

May is the season for bluebells, when the floor of ancient English woodlands are aglow with a soft blue haze created by masses of these graceful flowers all blooming at once. Bluebell woods are increasingly rare, and so when you come across one the magic is all the more intense. This painting of a pheasant pair was inspired by just such a moment. I was pleased with how the red-brown of the male pheasant stood out against the soft blue.

 

---

April 28th, 2020 Zebra with Young Wildlife Painting of the Week

The inspiration for this painting was watching zebras in Etosha National Park, Namibia. The sun blazed harshly on this herd and as I watched I noticed this one lead over to shade its foal. It seemed to me a touching thing to do.

 

---

April 21st, 2020 Curlew Wildlife Painting of the Week

The sound of a curlew’s call as it rings out across the Yorkshire Wolds and moors has inspired many an artist and poet before me. But that hasn’t stopped me also painting this iconic bird many times – and never was I so inspired to pick up my paintbrush as the day I followed the noise to uncover the secret hiding place of a clutch of curlew chicks, 

Click here to read the full story.

 

---

April 15th, 2020 Crackle: Standing Proud Wildlife Painting of the Week

This is a portrait of Crackle, a stoat born in my garden in 2019. When she was just a young kit Crackle starred in a TV documentary for BBC Natural World and for the US station PBS all about stoats and the family of mammals they belong to; weasels. The programme was made possible after I installed cameras inside the nest of Crackle’s mother, Bandita, in order to see how she brought up her young. I continued to follow this story of this stoat family long after the camera crews left. And the following year I noticed that Crackle was expecting kits of her own. She had to fight off her mother, Bandita, who tried to push her out of the territory, but eventually gained the right to raise five kits of her own here – alongside Bandita.

My cameras revealed so much about the character of stoats, their tenacity and their cheeky, inquisitive natures. Crackle, in particular, is a strong, proud, animal and I worked to get that across in my painting, choosing to pose her as she gazes out of the frame. Watch my painting come to life in this short video.

Click here to read more about Crackle and all the stoats in my garden 

 

Crackle: Standing Proud | Original Acrylic Painting | Available Here

---

 

April 6th, 2020 Lapwing Chick Wildlife Painting of the Week

Isn’t this the perfect print for Easter? There is a theory that suggests that the origin of the Easter bunny myth lies in medieval times when people thought that leverets hatched out of lapwing eggs. It seems odd to think they could have got it so wrong, except I suppose if they came across leverets in the fields they must have wondered how they got there. Of course we now know that lapwing chicks hatch out of lapwing eggs!  I painted this little lapwing chick after watching it hatch out in the field.

Click here to read the story

---

March 30th, 2020 Colourful Kingfisher Wildlife Painting of the Week

This painting of a kingfisher perched on willow catkins evokes serenity and peace. The vibrant colours of the kingfisher’s feathers sing out against my green backdrop, celebrating springtime and the natural world. I hope you can find solace through my artworks at this difficult time. 

 

---

March 24th, 2020 Badgers: A Playful Bunch Wildlife Painting of the Week

In the last few weeks, all our lives have transformed dramatically and the majority of us are now isolated at home. I am continuing to paint the wildlife I watch in my garden and I hope my paintings bring you solace in these difficult times. Below is my latest original painting featuring badgers. I built a badger sett in my garden rigged with cameras and when I introduced three orphaned cubs into the sett I was able to watch how they interacted underground. They are such playful creatures and I hope my painting brings that across. Click on the image below to watch a short film of the painting as I complete it.

Badgers: A Playful Bunch | Arcylic Painting | 

---

March 9th, 2020 Long-Tailed Tits on Blackthorn Wildlife Painting of the Week

The dainty flowers of blackthorn blossom are the perfect backdrop for these long-tailed tits as I think they complement the delicate pinks of the birds. I often use tree blossom in my compositions, perching wrens, robins and other birds on their branches to offset the colours in sringtime. In summer, I switch to wildflowers growing in the grass verges and pose wild mammals among them. 

Click here to see my collection of paintings featuring wildflower backdrops

Click here to see my collection of paintings of wildlife at Easter

---

 

March 2nd, 2020 Boxing Hares Wildlife Painting of the Week

Spring is almost upon us and so the obvious choice for my painting of the week is this limited edition print of Boxing Hares. Hares will box one another in vicious spats as the female tests the virility of the male before mating and although this behaviour is usually associated with springtime, it actually takes place all year. 

Click here to see my photographs and paintings of hares boxing in snow

---

Read More:

Click here for a weekly selection of the photographs behind my paintings: Wildlife Photo Of The Week

Click here to look back at 2019-20  painting choices

Click here to look back at my wildlife art summer choices.

Click here to look back at my wildlife painting spring choices.