An Admiration for Animals

“The beauty of nature re-forms itself in the mind, and not for barren contemplation, but for new creation.” R.W. Emerson, Nature (1836)

Born in 1990 and raised predominantly on a farm in the New South Wales countryside, and now residing in Tasmania, Meaghan’s family raised an extensive variety of animals, and occasionally raised and rehabilitated sick and injured wildlife. This inherent relationship and connection to animals developed a deep love and admiration for them, inspiring Meaghan to explore many animal drawings as a child and through to adulthood.

During Meaghan’s years on the farm she spent many weekends exploring the countryside by horseback with her mother, witnessing many aspects of nature. Memories and experiences from this farm inspire many of Meaghan’s animal portraits. The Rainbow

Lorikeets that would squeeze through the chicken wire on the bird aviary and steal the food within have been a great influence for her, inspiring several Rainbow Lorikeet portraits.

During College (Year 11 and 12), Meaghan was encouraged to explore human portraiture and to pursue a higher education at University. Once enrolled into a Bachelor of Fine Art she began to veer further away from animal portraiture. Meaghan studied and completed a Bachelor of Fine

Art and Design at the Hobart Centre for the Arts, where she focused on the structure, microscopic and macroscopic, of the environment, primarily utilising oil paints. She then

continued on to complete a Master of Fine Art and Design in 2012, which further more veered her away from animals and focused on an imaginative representation of the environment on large scale canvas with highly saturated colour. These paintings also began to verge more on the abstract by utilising a technique of pouring paint. Meaghan couldn’t possibly get any further away from animal portraiture.

After completing her Master’s Degree, Meaghan pursued a break from academia and began to draw animals again. During University she had volunteered at local animal rescue shelters, which inspired her to reignite a passion for drawing them. Meaghan began by utilising graphite and ink before incorporating colour with watercolour pencils.

This unique method enabled a greater sense of form and depth whilst maintaining the unique characteristics of the watercolour wash. The final layers of ink create a higher level of contrast and detail, and enable a greater degree of control.

Meaghan spent three months of 2013 in Europe, based in Berlin, Germany, where she quickly began to notice a difference in surrounding

animals. Crow-like birds frequented the area, as did the ever present sparrows. Occasionally one might see a fox, a woodpecker, a squirrel or a deer. This quickly ignited an even stronger appreciation of Australian wildlife, which began a succession of 20-40 A4 animal portraits drawn from photos on her phone. This mass of drawings demonstrated a yearning for these beautiful animals, not only in art but as a career as well, and ignited a goal to explore all of Australia’s native animals. This is when she began to push her animal portraits and to continue to improve her technique and quality, opening up many possibilities such as pet portraiture and working with animals.

Within weeks of returning home, Meaghan began taking commissions of people’s beloved fury friends and installing work in local cafes and pubs. Competitions also began to stand out as a means of exploring this passion. Meaghan entered a local art competition, her first since her high school and college years, where she won the People’s Choice award for her watercolour pencil and ink representation of the Tasmanian Devil. A local treasure and sadly suffering from deadly facial tumours, the Tasmanian Devil is a Tasmanian and Australian icon that is sadly dwindling in numbers.

Meaghan comments that there are many animal artists across the globe and it is important to follow artists that intrigue or inspire you, that give you a goal or simply motivate you to draw or paint more. Katherine Cooper is one such artist for Meaghan. Katherine resides in Tasmania and specialises in wildlife art. Her high level of detail and realism are strong motivators and a basis of inspiration

for Meaghan. Raising awareness of the often endangered status of Australian wildlife are both aims and concerns of these two artists.

“My wildlife portraits are inspired by our beautiful native fauna and are aimed at raising awareness of their often fragile and threatened status. I am often amazed and caught in awe, staring off into the trees, seeing things others simply do not or do not want to. It’s these moments I attempt to translate onto paper.”

Meaghan has predominantly worked in watercolour pencil and ink since reigniting her passion for drawing animals, aiming for a more rendered technique and ways in which she can accomplish this. This has resulted in her experimenting with oil paint portraits in an aim to utilise both watercolour and oil, emphasising their unique qualities and enabling an individual and varied method of portraying the animal.

Now participating in an internship at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary,

Meaghan aims to work alongside Australian wildlife and use these experiences to create portraits with more character and soul. Ultimately she aims to combine her career and her art to help raise awareness of the fragility of our wildlife.

“Having travelled to New Zealand and Europe I still find that nothing compares to our Australian native animals. Whilst I have a great admiration for all animals, my heart is fond of our unique and beautiful native wildlife.”

For more information on commissions or work for sale please contact Meaghan Roberts at:

Email: – meaghan-roberts@hotmail.com

Or visit: – www.facebook.com/Meaghanspetandwildlifeportraits

– www.redbubble.com/people/meaghanr

– www.facebook.com/meaghan.e.roberts