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I have been fascinated by nature since childhood and one of my earliest memories is of watching glow-worms as a three year old on the south Downs, in Hampshire.
I now live on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon with my wife Joyce and son Oscar. Our eldest son Barnaby is currently living in an old mill in Germany.
I enjoy exploring the natural world through through drawing and painting, wildlife in the field. I am also a keen photographer. My interests in natural history are wide with particular focus on the study of insects, birds and rockpool life. My sketches and field paintings are always produced on the spot in the field. For me this is the only way I can capture the life and vitality of my subjects.
I grew up on Hayling Island, where surrounded by the bird-filled harbours, sand dunes and the rich habitats of the county I developed a deep passion for the natural world.
After graduating from Falmouth School of Art and Design in 1991 I worked for the Dartmoor National Park Authority as a graphic designer.
Since going freelance in 1999 I now work as a ecologist specialising in invertebrates, wildlife artist and public speaker on a wide variety of projects including an illustrated wildlife diary, ecological studies of invertebrates including the blue ground beetle Carabus intricatus, the heath potter wasp Eumenes coarctatus and the Horrid ground weaver spider Nothophantes horridus. I have worked with the BBC Natural History Unit on many television programmes including the award winning Smalltalk Diaries, the Natural World – Earth Pilgrim and the David Attenborough series - Life in the Undergrowth. I have also contributed to several Living World programmes for Radio 4 and more recently have appeared in several short films on the– BBC One Show.
I have won a number of awards for my drawings and paintings, notably the Wildlife Art Gallery Award, in the 1992 European Bird Artist of the Year competition and in 1997 was the British Birds Bird Illustrator of the Year. My work has appeared in many books including the Devon - wildlife through the seasons and Bugs Britannica.