Featured Artist John Rainbird

Inspired by the critical need for conservation, John Rainbird creates art that connects us with the natural world. Learn more by visiting his website.

 

 

Working as a nature artist and an environmental scientist, I got lucky being born with the surname Rainbird. Nature is, of course, the ultimate artist. It is able to throw together the most unlikely forms, colours, and textures, and the outcomes always look amazing.

 

 

I grew up in South Africa, immersed in the electric energy that is so Africa. It is the birthplace of humanity and the last great refuge for the world’s great megafauna.

 

 

After completing my master’s degree in conservation biology in Cape Town, I did some traveling and ended up settling in Australia. I now live in Cairns, a small tropical coastal city that sits between the Wet Tropics World Heritage Rainforest and the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

 

 

My art aims simply to capture the beauty of the natural world and the essence of my subjects. I have been doing a lot of work in pencil lately. This is mostly for the convenience, but also because it’s a wonderful medium in its own right.

 

 

I love to work in oils as well, and am currently working on an oil painting of a barramundi, an iconic fish in these parts.

 

 

I have no formal art training. The various books on wildlife art featuring the great masters of this fantastic genre have been a trusty guide and a constant source of inspiration.

 

 

As species and ecosystems around the world face ever greater threats from our blundering and insensitive ways, it is ever more critical to build a connection between people and the natural world. Wildlife art can play a useful role in making this connection.

 

 

I am a member of Artists for Conservation, a group of five-hundred wildlife artists from around the world. Our art helps to raise funds for conservation projects.

 

 

Wildlife art also demands a good knowledge of the subjects of anatomy, ecology and behavioral science. Our audiences are often extremely well informed naturalists. Thus, any minor errors in form, behavior or habitat are quickly pointed out. For example, cockatoos always hold their food with their left foot, so beware the artist who paints a right-footed cockatoo!

 

 

It is this combination of knowing the subject matter, together with the challenges of creating a distinctive work of art that I really enjoy.

 

Artist John Rainbird invites you to follow him on Facebook and the organization Artists for Conservation.

 

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