Welcome to my website, which has recently been updated, expanded, and enhanced. The website contains a selection of paintings, drawings, prints and books on the natural world, a subject that has fascinated me so much over the years. Since leaving the Berkshire College of Art and Design over fifty years ago, apart from six months with a design group, I have been a full-time, freelance illustrator, specialising mainly in insects and other invertebrates. I use the title Wildlife Illustrator to describe my work, though originally I used Biological Illustrator and also Scientific Illustrator. Whatever the title, my objective has always been to put the subjects first and to try to do full justice to the natural world that I've spent my life portraying. Having met and seen the work of my mentor Arthur Smith at the Natural History Museum in the early 1970's, I am also keen to keep alive the art of entomological illustration in combination with scientific accuracy, hopefully creating images expressing the full beauty and intricacies of nature.


In addition to those illustrations that appear on this website, I have a large number of other individual images, which may be used for publication or as prints for framing. If you would like more details on any of the subjects, please feel free to contact me.

Signed Mounted Prints

All prints, with the exception of proof-prints, are scanned from the original artworks and adjusted by me, so as to get the most accurate match to the original. Each one is individually printed, using pigmented inks, on high image definition paper, in particular, PermaJet Smooth Fine Art Paper. These prints should last for more than 80 years without fading, they are mounted using Castile Ivory blackcore mounting board. Because of this attention to detail the resulting prints are always of a higher quality and detail than mass produced images and are of equal or better quality than expensive professionally produced Giclee prints.

Original Paintings

Although I regularly add new original paintings to the website, I've decided that I cannot keep all the artwork I've done over the years so I'm planning to offer more of it for sale. So, if there is a particular species you are interested in, I may well have a painting of it, as there are many illustrations I have that are not shown on this website.

Also ...

... on occasions in the past, some website enquiries have gone astray, so, if by chance you haven't heard from me after a couple of days of having emailed, please contact me by phone on 01235 848451.

The Birdfair is back!

Under its new name of Global Birdfair, and its successful relaunch in July 2022, the Birdfair took place again in July 2023 at the Rutland Showground, Oakham. It was a great success but very, very wet and muddy! In 2024 the event will take place at Lyndon Top on the banks of Rutland Water, on 12th, 13th & 14th July. I shall be there in the Art Marquee.


Pocket Guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland

This is the latest book I've written and illustrated, with contributions from Professor Dave Goulson and Gill Perkins, founder and CEO of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust (which receives a donation from all copies sold) respectively. It has been very well received and will make the tricky task of identifying our bumblebees much easier. Here's what one reviewer says :- 'For decades I used various bumblebee i/d leaflets, posters, magazine articles, books and online resources to attempt to identify bumblebees. I found none of them entirely satisfactory. But now we have by far the best guide of all.' For under a tenner I think it's great value. Click here for more details.

Field Guide to the Micro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland: 2nd edition

For the last couple of years, Phil Sterling, Mark Parsons and I have been working on a major revision of the very successful ‘Micros' book, originally published (amazingly) 12 years ago. Much has happened since then, and now with 253 new species added, many new illustrations and an extra 112 pages, it really is a worthy and keenly anticipated revision, which we are all delighted with. Some original plates are still available.

Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland

First published in 2003, the Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland is still going strong, having been revised and reprinted seven times in the past twenty years. Most of the plates have been sold but there are a few still remaining.

Field Guide to the Grasshoppers of Great Britain and Ireland

This book has been long in the making. Indeed, the artwork was completed about two years ago, but with health and other issues of the authors there has been a delay in the submission of the text. Hopefully, it will be completed very soon and will be published in 2025. In the meantime, I am selling the original artworks and they are included here, on my website, for the first time.

Pocket Guide to the Spiders of Great Britain

My interest in spiders goes back to the 1970's when much of my time was spent searching for, identifying and illustrating spiders, working from living specimens, as unlike butterflies or beetles, spiders are soft bodied, and like caterpillars, don't preserve well in collections. Some of these earlier illustrations where used in a Field Studies Council chart and some in the Guide to Garden Wildlife but most are unpublished, until now, when my interest in spiders has been renewed. More recently, I've been helped by several kind enthusiasts, who have sent me specimens and photo references, to complete the remaining illustrations. The book I'm working on is a combination of those portraits I did several decades ago and specimens I've been finding in recent months. Most of the work has now been completed and the book will be published in spring 2025. Many of the originals are for sale here.

Field Studies Council – Dragonflies Guide

In 2023 the Field Studies Council asked to use my illustrations from Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland to produce a new chart. This is the 7th chart I've done for them and I'm always impressed with the printing and production, this one being particularly accurate.


Commissions

Of the commissions and publications that have given me the most pleasure in recent years, the three sets of Royal Mail postage stamps are among my favourites, as I can be assured they are always going to be well reproduced when featured as First Day Covers and Presentation packs. The three sets were 'Butterflies' - July 2013, 'Bees' - August 2015 and 'Brilliant Bugs' - October 2020. The last of these, 'Brilliant Bugs', was a collaboration with Professor Helen Roy (who I worked with on the Field Guide to the Ladybirds of Great Britain and Ireland), and I was delighted when that set won the 'Favourites stamp set' of 2020.





I was also honoured when, in 2016, I was commissioned by Butterfly Conservation to paint three Vanessid butterflies to mark the 90th birthday of their President, Sir David Attenborough. He has since said that the painting is the first thing he sees in the morning and the last thing he sees at night - very gratifying to know.

Autumnwatch

In 2017, I appeared in an episode of Autumnwatch with my brother, Ian, which can be viewed here.


Atropos Article

The Summer 2011 issue of Atropos magazine has an article I wrote discussing the merits of artwork over photography for identification guides, from an illustrators point of view. Click here to view the article. It seems the illustrations are best viewed on a PC rather than an iPad, although I'm not sure why!