Artist Eric Petrie

Shortlisted for BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year 2012

I have always been surrounded by animals. I have been fascinated by the way they move, the way that they interact with their environment since childhood. I have a particular fascination for their different textures. Reptiles and amphibians have warty or scaly skins, many fish have scales, mammals (mostly) have hair or fur and birds have feathers.

My work is about texture, about the creature in its environment. I am fortunate living as I do in Somerset, as the county is so diverse in its mixture of habitats: the wild moorlands of Exmoor; the wooded rounded Quantocks; the wetlands of the Somerset Levels; rich farmland; our own Jurassic coast at Kilve and Quantoxhead; sand dunes at Berrow; and, so on. This means an equally diverse wildlife. I am also not far from Bristol zoo and Slimbridge which add more exotic creatures to my canvas.

In the studio I work mainly from field sketches and photographs. To research specific details the internet is an invaluable resource, as are my occasional visits to London to the Natural History Museum.

To say that I believe in conservation would be trite, to say that I follow the Judeo-Christian tradition of bearing a responsibility for caring for the natural world would be silly - as it patently has not been part of that tradition. Instead I will say that I have a deep and abiding awe of animals, a horror of what we have done to our environment - in the next thirty years we face an extinction event in the oceans to rival that of the dinosaurs. Even if I don't live that long my children will live through it. To say I am pessimistic would be an understatement. I am trying to capture in paint some of these wonderful creatures before they disappear forever.

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'akela' (Grey Or Timber Wolf) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £295.00	'trout Fishing' (Otter and Brown Trout) Size: 24.00" x 32.00" Price: £495.00	' Goanna' (Lace Monitor Lizard) Size: 24.00" x 20.00" Price: £425.00
Sleepy (Lion - Panthera Leo) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95	'sleepy' (Lion - Panthera Leo) Size: 20.00" x 24.00" Price: £325.00	'bubbles' (Otter) Size: 20.00" x 24.00" Price: £325.00
'bubbles' (Otter) Size: 20.00" x 24.00" Price: £69.95	Red (Red Squirrel) Size: 20.00" x 24.00" Price: £69.95	Tawny Oak (Tawny Owl in Oak Tree) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95
In the Early Morning Rhyne Vi (Frog) Size: 16.00" x 20.00" Price: £69.95	In the Early Morning Rhyne V (Grey Heron) Size: 16.00" x 20.00" Price: £69.95	In the Early Morning Rhyne Iii (Mallard Ducks) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95
In the Early Morning Rhyne Ii (Otter) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95	In the Early Morning Rhyne I (Water Vole) Size: 16.00" x 20.00" Price: £69.95	Prairie Horse (Seahorse) Size: 16.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95
Pink (Flamingo) Size: 16.00" x 20.00" Price: £69.95	In the Margins (Otter) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95	Afternoon Swim (Tiger) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95
Elevenses (Gorilla) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95	Tembo (Elephant) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95	Calculator in the Grass (Snake - Adder) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95
Goanna (Monitor Lizard) Size: 16.00" x 20.00" Price: £69.95	Green (Iguana) Size: 20.00" x 16.00" Price: £69.95	Grey (Grey Squirrel) Size: 16.00" x 20.00" Price: £69.95
'grey' (Grey Squirrel) Size: 16.00" x 20.00" Price: £285.00 Sold

25 artworks.