I was recently contacted by someone asking for more details about a picture they had found by a bin, liked a lot, and taken home. It was nicely framed but not showing a signature on the front, luckily it had a small label stuck on the back saying that the artist was John Busby and […]
Birds
New exhibition June and July 2023
It was a lovely exhibition and I do hope you were able to see it. Some of the pictures sold I have put in the Recently Sold gallery, and I hope to start a new gallery of Framed Pictures soon so that you can see the others. —————- We’re just in the last stages of […]
Jordan bird illustrations
In 1995 John was asked to illustrate the then definitive guide to birding in Jordan, Ian J Andrews’ Birds of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Full of photos by the author, John’s illustrations add a depth of interest and drew on his experience of the country in the 1970’s and 1990’s. As always his illustrations show […]
Not just watercolours
Although this website is mostly concerned with John’s watercolours and drawings, he also drew birds in oils and pastels. Here are just a few to whet your appetite. Click on the pictures to bring up the details.
Ever tried Nature Journaling?
Keeping a visual diary is something that may appeal to you and there are many sources of encouragement from the books of Claire Walker Leslie, a pioneer in the field and a long time friend of John Busby to the online videos and teaching of John Muir Laws in California. Here is John Muir Laws […]
Arlequin Birdwatching guides
In the 1990’s and early 2000’s Arlequin Press published a large number of Birdwatching Guides to different areas, with suggestions for places to go, birds to see and, of course, a tick-list of possible species to cross off one’s lifetime list. The publishing house was set up to offer limited edition wildlife art books (starting […]
One good tern deserves…
Seven good terns! These lovely pen and wash drawings were found bundled together in the studio. They are all initialled and are likely to be illustrations for a book but I don’t know which one. Then I found this guide to Farne Island Birds with very similar illustrations, so our terns might have been for […]
‘The Gannet’
I recently came across some seabird prints that I thought I recognised. A little sleuthing showed that they were illustrations from The Gannet by J Bryan Nelson, published by T&AD Poyser in 1978 (1st ed). Unlike his previous publications The Gannet was written for the general ornithologist and bird watcher. Nelson “tried to make this monograph […]
PPP Penguins
These cute behavioural studies of penguins are from a worthy monograph on the subject by Tony D Williams published in 1995 by Oxford University Press [not to be confused with a later monograph published by Poyser!] Designed for the ‘professional scientist and the serious amateur ornithologist’ it was part of a series on Bird Families […]
Dust bathing sparrows
In early 1946, when he was 17, John won the RSPB’s Junior Bird Recorders’ Club annual drawing competition. He told me once it was with a picture of a sparrow dust-bathing, so I was particularly delighted to come across this (much later) picture recently. John delighted in observing and drawing bird behaviours. His book Looking […]