Prior to that a lot of my work was largely as a freelance illustrator on a wide range of natural history books, magazines and journals, including writing and illustrating An Artist on Migration, one chapter of which - centred in West Africa - was subsequently filmed and shown on BBC2 television in a programme (Beyond Timbuctu) that I presented. Other illustrations were for Rare Mammals of the World and the Gem Guide to Zoo Animals. Throughout that time I continued to exhibit larger fine art works when the opportunities arose.
As well as painting and printmaking, early projects involved filming in Antarctica as director-cameraman on an idea developed in collaboration with a friend and colleague into a documentary programme (The Private Life of the Fur Seal) subsequently shown on BBC1 television. A second programme (The 150 Millon Tonne Shrimp) telling a more complex Antarctic story was shown on BBC2 television two years later. Following the success of the programmes I was commissioned by Channel 4 Television to write and present the six part Birdscape series about a range of British landscapes and the lives of some of the birds, and some of the people associated with them.
My studio is now filled as with huge numbers of drawings, paintings, notebooks, and sketches reflecting visits over many years to the Arctic and Antarctica, Africa, many countries and regions of Europe, the Caribbean, and North and South America. There are still opportunities to travel and find new ideas, see new species and experience different landscapes. But over the last few years the obsessive urge to head off into the field at every opportunity has transferred itself into an equally strong desire to work in the studio, searching instead through the accumulated volumes of creative debris for fresh starting points.
2011
(Jan - May) Move studio (after 20+ years) to St Barnabas Press in Cambridge
(October) Voyage on board longliner out of South Africa as part of continuing Troubled Waters project
2010
Consultant to BirdLife International supported by grant funding from Wallace Foundation to visit Albatross Task Force in South Africa
2009
(October - November) Expedition sailing from Falkland Islands to South Georgia in pursuit of Troubled Waters project
2009
(March) Participation in Artists for Nature (ANF) project in Hula Valley, Israel
2008
Exhibition (May), Recent Work Pinkfoot Gallery, Norfolk
Exhibition (November), Wildlife Art Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
2007
Exhibition, Recent Work, Westcliffe Gallery, Sheringham, Norfolk, UK
2006
Exhibition An Tallag Dearg Gallery, Isle of Skye
Commission to complete fourteen paintings for Sultan of Oman
2005
Commissioned to complete twelve paintings for Sultan of Oman
Winner, GMAC Commercial Mortgage Europe Art Award, (SWLA London)
2004
External Examiner, Royal College of Art (Communication Art and Design)
2003
Invitation to participate in art project undertaken in the Tumbesian region on the
borders of Ecuador and Peru; included as of a group of artists invited from 6
countries by Artists for Nature Foundation (ANF)
Visiting lecturer, Royal College of Art (Communication Art and Design)
In a New Light, solo exhibition, Wildlife Art Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
Publication of In a New Light, a personal book looking at the contemporary and
earlier work as an artist
Selected for inclusion in Birds in Art exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson
Art Museum, USA
2002
Wildlife and the Artist, group exhibition, Wildlife Art Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
2001
Mural commission for Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
visitor centres at Derwent Ings and Pulborough Brooks nature reserves.
2000
Mural Commission for entrance foyer at RSPB national headquarters
1999
Mural commission for London Aquarium
Commission for 24 original works from Royal Caribbean Cruise Line
1998
Invitation to return to Parc Les Écrins in the Alpine region of France to
contribute to an ongoing art Project
Solo exhibition at The Peter Hedley Gallery, Dorset
Invitation to join Artists for Nature project in Alaska’s Copper River region;
subsequent contribution to project exhibition touring in USA
1997
Publication of Carnets du Littoral, La Camargue (author and illustrator)
Visiting lecturer, Royal College of Art (Communication Art and Design)
1996
Commissioned by Conservatoire du Littoral and Gallimard (publishers) in
France to portray the landscape and wildlife of the Camargue region of
southern France
Invitation from Artists for Nature Foundation to join international group of artists
in Extremadura region of Spain
Subsequently, work included in exhibition tour through Europe
Invitation from Parc Les Écrins, France to contribute to an art project in the
National Park.
1995
Exhibition, Wildlife Art Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk,UK
1994
Writer and presenter Birdscape a series of six half-hour programmes for
Channel 4 television
Elected President of the Society of Wildlife Artists
Selected for inclusion in Birds in Art exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson
Art Museum, USA
1992
Beyond Timbuktu – writer and presenter of a BBC2 World About US film about
the people and wildlife dependant on the seasonal floods of the Sahel region
of West Africa
Selected for inclusion in Birds in Art exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson
Art Museum, USA
1991
Publication of An Artist on Migration (author and illustrator) - a personal
interpretation of the annual journeys make flowing with the seasons between
Europe and Africa
1989
Solo exhibition An Artist on Migration at The Jane Neville Gallery, Aslockton,
Nottinghamshire
1987
Extensive journey through West Africa and Sahara researching and preparing
for a project about bird migration
1979
Publication of Rare Mammals of the World (illustrator) - a guide with text and
maps to over 100 endangered species
Exhibition at Natural History Museum, London of all illustration work from ‘Rare
Mammals of the World’
1978
Elected member of Society of Wildlife Artists
1977
An Artist in Antarctica, solo exhibition at the Scott Polar Institute, Cambridge
1976
Life, Light and Landscape, Assembly Rooms, Norwich - first solo exhibition
1975 – 1978
Three austral summer visits to Bird Island, South Georgia and Antarctic
Peninsula. First visit as field assistant, and subsequent visits as freelance
artists and film-maker
1973 – 1975
Film Production Assistant, Film Unit of Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds (RSPB)
1975 – 2006
Contributions to Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibition at the Mall
Galleries, London
