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overview
Walker's rare ability to give to each of the animals he depicts their unique characteristics and personas, while dressing them up in old cast-off human garments never robs them of their intrinsic "animalness".
Jonathan Walker was born in 1966 in Staffordshire and grew up in the Moorlands, where early experiences of the landscape shaped his enduring interest in the natural world. Much of his childhood was spent exploring the countryside with his father, himself an artist, and this close observation of wildlife continues to inform his practice. As a teenager, Walker studied Philosophy, Theology and Fine Art before training as an Occupational Therapist, working for many years with individuals experiencing severe mental health challenges. In 1991 he moved to Devon, where he continues to live and work. The landscapes of Dartmoor and the surrounding countryside provide the setting for much of his work, with subjects drawn from direct observation of animals such as badgers, foxes and small mammals encountered near his home. Working primarily in watercolour, Walker combines careful draughtsmanship with a restrained, earth-based palette of siennas, ochres and muted greens.
His paintings sit within the tradition of British wildlife illustration, yet are distinguished by their emphasis on character and individuality. Each animal is observed closely and presented with a degree of personality, grounded in the physical realities of its environment. Surface, texture and setting are treated with equal attention, resulting in compositions that reflect both the structure of the animal and the conditions of the landscape it inhabits.
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Werke
Jonathan Walker
The Beau with the BowWatercolour58 x 27.5 cms / 22¾ x 10¾ inchesSigned 'Jonathan Walker' (lower Right)Description
The Beau with the Bow is a wonderfully eccentric and characterful original watercolour painting that perfectly captures the artist's distinctive blend of humour, storytelling and fine draughtsmanship. Dressed in theatrical eighteenth-century attire and caught mid-performance, this elegantly dishevelled hare plays the violin with dramatic flair; a charming rogue suspended somewhere between woodland folklore and grand society. Jonathan Walker's work is celebrated for transforming the animals of the British countryside into richly imagined personalities, and his original watercolour paintings are among the most distinctive in contemporary British wildlife art.
Born in Staffordshire in 1966, Jonathan Walker spent much of his early life drawing and painting under the encouragement of his father, Keith Walker, himself an accomplished painter. After exploring fine art, theology, philosophy and a career in occupational therapy, Walker eventually returned fully to painting and has worked as a full-time artist for over a decade. A beloved figure in British contemporary art, his original watercolours are held in private collections across the UK and beyond. Since moving to Devon in the early 1990s, the surrounding countryside has become central to his imaginative world - one inhabited by hares, foxes and badgers dressed as dandies, rakes, and vagabonds, acting out deeply human dramas while never losing their essential "animalness".
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