Why I like wildlife art

By Jon Isaacs

Recently, somebody asked me how I became interested in wildlife art. As I started to reply I soon realised that it’s something I’ve been interested in since the age of six and that, over the years, my interest has been sustained by a variety of events.

At six I was already interested in animals and I can remember going to the local library, no children’s section in those days, and getting hold of a book on my mum’s ticket containing blurred black and white photos of African wildlife, including a rhino. I thought this was marvellous, and when my aunt and uncle came to stay they bought me a book by John Skeaping on drawing wildlife. The book disappeared many years ago but I can still remember the layout of several pages, including a page devoted to the upward flight and glide of a pigeon. I remember looking at the pen and ink sequenced drawings in awe and wondering how a person could work out such detail from a moving creature.

'Back to Front'
Penguins

Limited Edition Giclee Print By David Dancey-Wood

Copyright Hawksbill Fine Art 2010

As I grew older, I still enjoyed looking at animals in art. In art lessons at primary school I usually included animals somewhere in the picture. It was often a horse or a deer, (Which tended to be essentially a horse with antlers!) I also enjoyed seeing work by the late Ralph Thompson. He produced pen and ink prints, mainly of leopard and other cats, which were beautifully crafted with washes of ochre, blue, green and yellow to contribute to the markings on the animal and background. Occasionally, I still see examples of his work and experience the same old feelings of pleasure at what he was able to produce.

Growing up, and spending most of my holidays in the English countryside, I became interested in British Wildlife. I collected water colour or acrylic paintings of mammals I had seen or was interested in, and they provided happy memories of holiday sightings as well as a reminder of what was still out there to be discovered. Most of these pictures were small in size and beautifully detailed. I’ve always tried to get across to artists since those days that I’d much rather have small, finely detailed pictures  than large impressionistic ones, partly because they suit the small size of many modern rooms; also, they tend to be cheaper, therefore I can buy more of them!

As a Primary school teacher I was able to bring my love of wildlife art to the classroom. For several years my school allowed the top year of children to choose from a range of art and craft activities on a Friday afternoon. I ran a half term course on wildlife art which, to my great pleasure, was always over-subscribed. The children learnt how to hold a paintbrush, how to mix colours, how to work with different types of pencil and to experiment with pastels and charcoal. The subjects were always animals, from the flightless cormorant to an imaginary animal from the future adapted to a certain environment. I know that many of the children thoroughly enjoyed the sessions. There were no National Curriculum pressures on them or me, there was no expectation to produce a masterpiece, (Although many of their results surprised themselves and me with the quality they achieved) and, most importantly, they could take their results home. They also learnt about the creatures they worked on, their environment and what humans were doing to the planet. The children also saw the work of professional artists which I occasionally took in for them to look at. Hopefully, some of my enthusiasm for the world of wildlife and its art will have rubbed off on them and eventually, their own children.

'Winner Takes All'

Wrestling Mongoose

Limited Edition Giclee Print By David Dancey-Wood

Copyright Hawksbill Fine Art 2010

Having finally got to Africa in my forties, a whole new world of wildlife art opened up to me. To be able to see the big cats and all the other African wildlife in the flesh has been amazing. I discovered Gary Hodges pencil prints, often of African mammals, and started to avidly collect them. A time of awaiting the next limited edition prints had arrived. It was exciting. I met lots of other collectors of his work and we queued, exchanged memories of Africa and previous prints we’d obtained, eyed up each others purchases, and discussed the merits of the latest prints.

As I continued to visit Africa, so my collection of photos of animals grew, first in print and eventually digital. I met a young artist who wanted reference material on African animals for her own art and so I gave her photos of my latest trip. My interest in wildlife art had taken another direction. It is always a pleasure to help talented artists to produce sublime work and I get a real thrill out of seeing finished art which has evolved partly from reference material that I have supplied. It certainly beats just having the shots languishing on the computer.  At the present time I have supplied reference material to wildlife artists working in pencil, water colour, acrylic and pastel. Each regularly produces stunning work and, as they all work in different medium and styles, I don’t feel there is a conflict of interest. Two of them have even completed commissions for me. I then get the best of both worlds in that I have a piece of art of a favourite animal that I have seen, and  it is produced by one of my favourite artists.

'Pangolin'

Limited Edition Giclee Print By David Dancey-Wood 

Copyright Hawksbill Fine Art 2010

Having discovered David Dancey-Wood’s work, another strand of my interest in wildlife art has emerged. David is one of the most knowledgeable wildlife artists that I know. He really knows the background to a species he draws, its anatomical structure, its behaviour, its status in the wild and how it fits into the ecosystem. I also find such facts fascinating. I have enjoyed our chats relating to various species and also the opportunity to write on his website. David is highly enthusiastic to capture on paper the behaviour and exact detail of creatures that nobody else in wildlife art currently seems to consider worth depicting. To me, our world is rapidly becoming a fragile place, with the animals that inhabit it struggling to survive. I think it is increasingly important that the rare species which could soon become extinct are recorded for future generations, not only in digital print and film, but also through the eyes of top artists like David, who can often convey more of the animals’ character and behaviour than even the best of professional photographers are able to achieve. Whilst tigers and pandas deserve to be depicted, and frequently are, so to do less popular creatures ranging from aardvark to zebra.

'Old Curly'

Limited Edition Print By David Dancey-Wood

Copyright Hawksbill Fine Art 2005

I know that I have been extremely fortunate to be able to see and buy the selection of wildlife art that I possess. The lifetime passion has sustained me through good times and bad, and many of my pictures have their own story as to how and where they were acquired. Hopefully, after half a century of being involved with wildlife and art, there are still a few more twists and turns in the road to be travelled of being a wildlife art collector.

Jon Isaacs. 

'Mayan Monarch'

Young Jaguar

Limited Edition Giclee Print by David Dancey-Wood

Copyright Hawksbill Fine Art 2010

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