Featured work by Toni Hargreaves

I spent five years at Blackpool and Fylde College of Art, studying first technical illustration then specialising in scientific illustration with a view to becoming a medical illustrator. I worked for a medical publisher in Surrey as an illustrator before returning to the north to pursue a career as a freelance wildlife illustrator eventually signing to a London illustration agency.

Computer based illustration and digitised artwork were beginning to affect the role of the wildlife illustrator and the type of work available. It was then to prove a turning point in my career when, in 1997, I met quite a few international wildlife artists whilst exhibiting at the British Falconry Fair. This led to me painting wildlife pictures, often working from my own photographs of reference as well as sketch material gained from the field, including trips to Kenya and Botswana on safari.

Every artist needs a new challenge to incite the enthusiasm, so after a number of years painting traditional wildlife paintings I decided to experiment on box canvas with a more contemporary approach to my animals.

Signing with Washington Green has enabled me to concentrate completely on my painting by giving me an opportunity to show my work to a wider audience.