Wildlife Artist of the Year 2024

I am home after a very exciting week , we headed to London to see  the wildlife artist of the year exhibition at the Mall Galleries.

It's a lot of work and a lot of stress, to enter, to wait nervously for the results , choose a frame and get the work up to London from Devon. 

Then why do it then I hear you ask ?

Well 

I live in a little bubble here in beautiful Devon and I have said before that it informs my work, a walk up my lane with the hedgerows brimming with life, bees buzzing, and  floral displays that could challenge for a gold medal at Chelsea.

I also have a such a great following , the feedback I get from everyone on Facebook and Instagram is so positive. I love to post my work and make connections all over the place. It truly does mean a lot, a like or a comment, spurs me on. 

 

However every year I want to see if I can up the anti and try to get in ,be amongst the best . It also adds a spike to the year, something to aim for, sometimes I finish a piece and think is that good enough for the wildlife competition?  I go with the flow and paint what 'feels' right so to get into the competition is so thrilling.

 

My covid year entry meant the absolute world to me , after the year I had .

 

Last year I didn't make it, so this year I had to double down and pull something out of the bag... to get in feels wonderful, I know how difficult it is , to not get in. I have never made it in the society of wildlife artists exhibition and last year I didn't make  David Shepherd either.

My heart goes out to people who feel rejected,  ...but I have always liked tried to try again. Art is so subjective and if you enjoy doing it then do it, and if you don't like to be judged then don't enter competitions.

This was one that didn't make it one year

However I like the excitement of it , I like the jeopardy of it and I like to see if I can keep my standards high, I want to be as good as I can be and this helps me see what is going on out there, outside of my Devon bubble.

 

Back in 2018 when we could go to London, feel the buzz , all very exciting x

Thinking about the competition generates  new ideas .Now all I want to do is paint and experiment and hopefully enter again next year with something maybe  that pushes me a bit further .

I have realised that if I don't test myself I may never venture from my rural idyll ...and I may not have more new and exciting adventures, .Life is most definitely for living, enjoying what we do ,as none of us know what is around the corner, I am so pleased to be in the mix again this year with my octopus, which is titled 

Dancing in the waves to the rhythm of the ocean 

 

This is us on the preview evening on Monday..

 

and to have my daughter's work there too, was incredible

She's got in aged 18, it took me 40 odd years to achieve it !

 

Finally a request as elections are very much in the news at the moment  if you'd like to vote for either my octopus or Eliza's Jellyfish in the People's choice award then do so in the People's choice award on the David Shepherd website 

 

 

Thankyou as always for all your comments and good wishes