Drawing emotions

My aim is to take paper or canvas and create an emotion. Let me get this straight, I’m not an art lover for whom birds and animals are a handy subject. I’m a wildlife geek who feels compelled to try to capture the amazing beauty of nature inside the limits of a picture frame.

The single most important part of my work process is being outdoors, walking and working always with my camera, sketching gear and binoculars. This is an everyday, rain-or-shine, no-excuses necessity, the importance of which cannot be overstated. Not only for collecting reference. Watching birds, stumbling across a fox’s den or counting the seasons by the wildflowers that come and go, this is what creates the charge, the excitement of connection, a feeling that you’ve been accepted into a secret world. That feeling stays with me back to the studio where the work begins. Although I do use other media, my main obsession is with coloured pencils.

When I compose a new piece the animal is definitely the star. I include very little, if anything, else in the picture. If I’m showing, say, a group of birds then the interaction between each animal is key. There must be a dynamic relationship between one bird and another so the viewer feel as though they are peeking into an intimate moment. If there is only a single subject then the dynamic changes and it’s between the viewer and what they must see as a living sentient soul in front of them. There is, hopefully, a direct connection that draws you in.