Winter art exhibition | your exclusive preview of my new original paintings

 

 

Welcome to your preview of my latest original paintings. These go on show at my gallery in Thixendale tomorrow, until Dec 1st. This exhibition is a celebration of British wildlife and is titled 'Natural Treasures'. Click here for details of my exhibition

Original wildlife paintings | Britain's natural treasures

Title: Barn owl coming in to land
Price: £3,850
Subject: Barn Owl
Medium: Acrylic
Size:  Image: 15.25" x 10.25"" | Framed: 25.25" x 21"

Inspiration: It took me 17 years to get a barn owl to nest at my home and studio at Fotherdale Farm. But now I am able to view many barn owls from my living room window as they quarter the valley below and I have installed cameras inside their nest boxes so that I can watch their secret worlds.

Find out more:

Click here for details and to watch this painting's development
Click here for stories from my barn owl nest cameras

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Title: Courting Gannets
Price: £2,650
Subject: Gannets
Medium: Acrylic
Size:  Image: 10.75" x 7.5"" | Framed: 23.5" x 19.25"

Inspiration: Gannets are stunning birds. Pure black aerodynamic wing tips, soft yellow heads and striking blue-grey dagger-like beaks edged with black, they are an artist's dream.

Find out more:

Click here for details about this painting
Click here to read about where I go to watch gannets and when to see them

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Title: Puffin Trio
Price: £2,350 
Subject: Puffins
Medium: Acrylic 
Size: Image: 10.75" x 7" | Framed : 17.75" x 20.5"

Inspiration: Puffins are described as the clowns of the sea. I love watching their comical courtship displays in the Farne Islands and closer to home at RSPB Bempton Cliffs.

Find out more:

Click here for details and to watch this painting's development
Click here for my story of watching puffins for my paintings

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Title: Hares in a shaft of light
Price: £4,450
Subject: Hares
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 14.75" x 12" | Framed:24.75" x 22.75"

Inspiration:  I took the cover of a snowstorm as an opportunity to get close to a pair of courting hares. As the last snowflakes had fallen, a shaft of light came through the clouds, lighting up the hares.

Find out more:

Click here for details  and to watch this painting's development
Click here for my story of watching hares in snow 

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Title: Wren
Price: £2,450
Subject: Wren
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 7" x 10" | Framed: 22.5" x 18.25"

Inspiration: A pair of wrens nest in my porch every year and they are so bold they will come to get a mealworm from me as I'm putting on my boots. I love their cheeky characters. This is a male and I wanted to capture its confidence as it perched on these catkins, surveying the garden.

Find out more:

Click here for details and to watch this painting's development
Click here to read about the wrens in my garden

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Title: Gannets Sky Pointing
Price: £2,350
Subject: Gannets
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 10" x 7" | Framed: 19.25" x 23.5"

Inspiration: Living close to Bempton Cliffs gives me the ideal opportunity to study gannets in their sea bird city. I love to watch mini-dramas playing out in the colony as well as their majestic courtship. They shake their heads, face skywards and touch beaks while calling.

Find out more:

Click here for details and to watch this painting's development
Click here to read about the gannet colony at Bempton Cliffs

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Title: Hare's Looking at You
Price: £1,450
Subject: Hare
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 4.25" x 8.25" | Framed: 14" x 19"

Inspiration: I love trying to get close to hares. I like to creep up to them as if in a game of 'Grandmother's footsteps'. This one was eating as I approached, then looked my way: I'd been spotted.

 

Find out more:

Click here for details and to watch this painting's development
Click here to read about watching hares for my paintings

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Title: Peregrine
Price: £2,150
Subject: Peregrine Falcon
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 6" x 11.75"| Framed:15.75" x 22.25"

Inspiration: I have been studying peregrine falcons at Salt End Chemical Plant for a few years now. The female is used to seeing people, working on the site. This has allowed me to get unparalleled views of these birds of prey from a hide just 15 metres away from its nest.

Find out more:

Click here for details and to watch this painting's development
Click here for stories from my peregrine nest camera

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Title: Peregrine Falcon - the Ultimate Predator
Price: £5,000
Subject: Peregrine Falcon
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 13" x 18.5"| Framed: 25.25" x 31.75"

Inspiration: Peregrines are the ultimate predator, stooping on prey at amazing speeds. In this painting I wanted to capture their powerful presence.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting
Click here for stories from my peregrine nest camera

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Title: Pine Marten
Price: £1,450
Subject: Pine Marten
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 4.25" x 8.5"" | Framed: 14.75" x 19.25""

Inspiration: I travel regularly to the west coast of Scotland. My mission is always to study pine martens. On one visit, a young male became accustomed to my presence after two weeks. He allowed me some unforgettable close encounters.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting and this painting's development
Click here to read my story on watching this pine marten.

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Title: Stoat & Rabbit
Price: £4,310
Subject: Stoat chasing rabbit
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 21.75" x 7.75" | Framed: 32" x 20"

Inspiration: As a boy growing up on a farm on the Yorkshire Wolds, I've watched stoats take on rabbits twice their size. After witnessing their fearlessness during my latest studies of stoats in the garden at Fotherdale Farm, I felt inspired to paint this scene from memory.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting
Click here to read more about my stoat studies

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Title: Avocets: Perfect Pair
Price: £5,450
Subject: Avocet
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 13.75" x 20.75" | Framed: 23.5 " x 31.5"

Inspiration: Avocets are so graceful to paint. I love the symmetry of their black and white plumage. I set these two birds against a simple backdrop of blue water fading into the blue of the sky. I liked the way the curve of their beaks are juxtaposed against the curve of their necks in this composition.

Find out more:

Click here for details and to see the development of this painting
Click here to read about watching avocets in Mallorca

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Title:  Bandita's Trio
Price: £3,250 
Subject: Stoat
Medium: Gouache, acrylic & pencil 
Size: Image: 14" x 11" | Framed: 23.75" x 21.5"

Inspiration: This is Bandita, a stoat I followed closely in my garden. In this painting, I wanted to capture how protective she was as a mother. She would move her kits whenever she sensed danger - making it a challenge to follow her

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting and to watch its development
Click here to read the story of Bandita

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Title: Hare Kiss
Price: £4,950
Subject: Hare
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image size: 11" x 15.5” | Framed size 23.5" x 29.5"

Inspiration: I photographed the two hares in this painting during a severe snow storm in March named the Beast from the East. Surprisingly, these hares were courting in the cold, whilst other wildlife was simply struggling to survive. I wanted to capture the concept of affection blossoming despite adversity.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting and to watch its development
Click here to read the story of watching hares during the Beast from the East

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Title: Two Weasel Kits Branching Out
Price: £2,750
Subject: Weasel
Medium: Acrylic & pencil
Size: Image: 11" x 8.5" | Framed: 21" x 19"

Inspiration: In this painting, I wanted to capture the playful nature of weasels as well as their phenomenal climbing skills. I had seen these two kits chase one another along this impossibly thin twig. I hadn't realised what incredible poise and balance weasels had until I started watching them closely.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting and to watch its development
Click here to read the story of my garden weasels

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Title: Glance of a Peregrine
Price: £3,625
Subject: Peregrine falcon
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 14.75" x 9.25" | Framed: 24.5" x 19.5"

Inspiration: I've been watching a pair of peregrines raise four chicks on an industrial site run by Vivergo Fuels at Salt End Chemical Park in Hull. This is the female. She has a very steady gaze. I wanted to capture the intense way she looks at me when I'm in my hide, high up on a 100ft grain silo.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting and to watch its development
Click here for stories from my peregrine nest camera

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Title: The Weasel's Secret Chase 
Price: £2,150  
Subject: Weasel
Medium: Gouache, acrylic & pencil 
Size: Image: 9.75" x 7" | Framed: 21" x 19.25"

Inspiration: The way in which weasels can manoeuvre their long thin bodies through tight spaces fascinates me. I built a perspex maze for Fidget, a weasel I hand-reared. I was intrigued at how his body became almost fluid as he negotiated the twists and turns. The studies I made of him became the inspiration for this imagined vole chase. 

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting and to watch its development
Click here to read Fidget's story

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Title: Crackle Standing Proud
Price: £7,950
Subject: Stoat
Medium: Arcylic
Size: Image: 29" x 20" | Framed: 41" x 32.75" 

Inspiration: This is a portrait of Crackle, a stoat born in my garden this year. Despite her mother trying to push her out of the territory, she has gone on to raise five kits of her own here this year. I wanted to capture her inquisitive, cheeky character in this painting.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting and to watch its development
Click here to read the story of the stoats in my garden

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Title: Pheasants Flight
Price: £8,950
Subject: Pheasant & roe deer
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 29.5" x 19.5" | Framed: 40.5" x 31" 

Inspiration: In this painting, I wanted to capture the essence of the Yorkshire Wolds, with its criss-cross of dale sides and its abundant wildlife. I wanted to capture that moment when you turn a corner on a walk and come across a wonderful wildlife scene like this.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting
Click here to read about watching roe deer on the Wolds

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Title: Snow Patrol
Price: £6,950
Subject: Pheasant
Medium: Oil
Size: Image:19" x 13.5" | Framed: 27.5" x 22"

Inspiration: I love to see pheasants strutting around over Christmas when their plumage is at its best. This one had been hiding in some grasses and rushed out as I approached. When it realised that I wasn't a threat, it held its tail aloft and marched off, keeping its beady eye on me!

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting
Click here to read my story of watching pheasants courting

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Title: Great Crested Grebe Incubating
Price: £2,950
Subject: Great crested grebe
Medium: Pencil & acrylic
Size: Image: 10.5" x 12" | Framed: 20.5" x 22.75"

Inspiration: I watched this great crested grebe sitting on its nest at York University, just 10 metres from a busy footpath. She had three stripey chicks which she would take out to main lake on short trips before bringing them back to rest and roost.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting
Click here to read about grebe's and their romantic courtship dance

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Original Wildlife Art |Paintings of Worldwide Natural Treasures

Title: King Penguin Pair
Price: £6,950
Subject: King penguin
Medium: Acrylic
Size: Image: 15.5" x 30 " | Framed: 27" x 41 " 

Inspiration: I traveled to Antarctica in 2007 and saw the largest penguin colony at St Andrew's Bay with over half a million penguins. But these two were from the smallest colony we visited - just 18 birds - on Saunders Island in the Falkland Islands.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting

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Title: European Brown Bear
Price: £7,750
Subject: Brown Bear
Medium: Oil
Size: Image: 30" x 21" | Framed: 38.5x29.5"

Inspiration:  I traveled to Finland in 2008 to photograph European Brown Bears. Bear watching happens at night when the bears come out of the forest into clearings to forage on berries and on other food. But, as they were only just south of the Arctic circle, it was light for much of the night.

Find out more:

Click here for details of this painting

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On the Easel

I'm still working on this new original painting. Visit my gallery to see the finished piece.

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See these new original paintings at my winter art exhibition

 

Winter Art Exhibition

Natural Treasures | Nov 9th - Dec 1st | Thixendale

Open Weekdays 9.30am-4.30pm | Weekends 10.30am-4.30pm 
See all my latest original paintings at my winter art exhibition. My gallery is set in the beautiful Yorkshire Wolds, a half-hour drive from York. On display are paintings, sculptures as well as the photographs, films and live nest cams that inspire my work. A selection of art gifts & homeware are also on sale and we serve complimentary coffee. Entry is free and there is disabled access and free car parking. 

Find out more:

Click here for more information