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John Busby, Artist

Landscape and wildlife artist, illustrator and author

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Birds

Birds in your Garden

January 20, 2021

As we come up to the RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch  can I recommend again this delightful book published 1989 and currently available very cheaply on the secondhand book market? It is full of wonderful illustrations by John, many in full colour and takes you through a whole year in your garden with ideas for […]

Filed Under: Birds - otherwise uncategorised, Blog, Pictures, Publications

Scottish Wildlife print

November 18, 2020

£50 each +p&p    37 x 41 cm unmounted. There are quite a few architects’ plan drawers in the studio. Wide and shallow they could hold enormous sheets of paper and are ideal for the sketches and unmounted original  watercolours they hold now.  Every so often I delve into the drawers and emerge with some […]

Filed Under: Animals and other wildlife, Birds - otherwise uncategorised, Landscapes, Pictures

Look what I found !

October 12, 2020

Remounting this lovely watercolour of Manx Shearwaters recently I came across a pencil sketch of coastal waters with seals and a small Hebridean style boat on the back.  Which picture would you display? £450 in double mount 40 x 50 cm  buy now  from the shop.

Filed Under: Seabirds

Silent cliffs and restless water

July 21, 2020

“The contrast between silent cliffs and restless water offer powerful pictorial dynamics for an artist, as do the changes of light and shade and the air full of circling birds. The cliffs are a frontier between us and the horizon – to the seabirds, they are a necessary foothold on which to nest; a vertical […]

Filed Under: Blog, Pictures, Seabirds

Wet weather wagtails

July 2, 2020

Here’s little ‘trotty’ wagtail  who went in the rain, according to the poem by John Clare, the 19th Century poet known for his celebration of the English countryside. The Pied Wagtail  is a highly distinctive black and white bird with a strutting walk and a tail constantly moving up and down.  It’s ‘tittering, tottering’ motion […]

Filed Under: Birds, Blog, Pictures

Beautiful Cranes

June 18, 2020

Crane Arabesque 2001

Thank you to the International Crane Foundation and the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum for featuring John on their latest webinar Cranes and Artists – a creative dance. Available to view on the ICF YouTube channel here. In his book Lines from Nature John wrote, ” At Hornborgasjon… is one of the great bird events […]

Filed Under: Blog, Cranes, Pictures

Quiet reflections

June 9, 2020

A Little Grebe paddles purposefully on a still lake. The bow-wave and wake reflect the light still in the evening sky. This is one of several similar pictures we still have capturing quiet moments on still water. The depiction of movement and stillness is quite special in my mind. John himself said, “Water puts all […]

Filed Under: Birds, Blog, Pictures

Who are you looking at?

June 9, 2020

Gulls are known as bold creatures and the bane of many tourist hot-spots. This one is certainly giving us a hard stare, he may be about to fly off, but he’ll be back! Most birds are more wary, peering out from behind rocks, or deep inside vegetation, pictures may not show much of the physical […]

Filed Under: Birds, Blog, Pictures

Fairy Tern

June 1, 2020

A delicate all-white Fairy Tern (Gygis alba) flies in an azure sky, somewhere over the Seychelles or Aldabra atoll. Bright sunlight makes its wings almost transparent. £130, 11 x 20 cm in A4 mount These little birds are relatively common across the tropical oceans of the world despite their daft parenting practices.  The female lays […]

Filed Under: Birds, Blog, Pictures

Chiffchaff, The Proud Songster

May 26, 2020

Chiffchaff, 'proud songster' by John busby

This little illustration was labelled “Proud Songster” and while not specifically mentioned in the poem of the same name by Thomas Hardy, John obviously felt that this Chiffchaff was doing its bit to fill our days with birdsong. Pen and wash drawing 13 x 11cm  For sale as part of the #artistsupportpledge  £100   buy now […]

Filed Under: Birds, Blog, Pictures

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