Bearded Iris & Bumblebee

Framed size: 47cm x 26cm

Wildlife Artist

Living and working from his studio in Warsash on the Hampshire coast, Clive draws inspiration from the wildlife of the coastline and the plants that he cultivates in his garden at home.

Born in Shropshire, his initial interest in wildlife and the countryside was fostered in his early years, brought up the son of a dairy farmer, and spending hours outside birdwatching and larking about on the River Severn and its streams in his hometown of Shrewsbury. Clive is an entirely self-taught artist and has been working professionally since 1993.

Working in pencil, oils and precious metals, observation is vital to Clive’s working practice. Each drawing or painting reveals meticulous attention to detail, achievable only by hours spent in the field observing and photographing subjects in their natural habitat. Aside from wildlife watching and photography in the UK, Clive has travelled extensively in Asia and Africa in search of subjects for his drawings and paintings. It was on one of these trips to the Far East in 2017 where Clive was introduced to a master artisan and goldsmith working with the Thai Royal household in Bangkok who guided him in the traditions of working with gold.

Inspired by the classical uses of gold leaf in paintings of the past, Clive developed his own approach to incorporating precious metal leaf into his depictions of botanical and wildlife subjects often utilising mixed precious metals in a single gilding. Whether the subject is wildlife or botanical Clive utilises the gold leaf to isolate and lift the subject allowing the viewer to truly appreciate the beauty and complex details of nature.

Now splitting his studio time between his mixed media works and more traditional oil paintings Clive continues to produce stunning nature-inspired works that have been published extensively as limited edition prints and widely exhibited in galleries throughout the UK and beyond.