Animals were the principal subject for the earliest artists. But it was not until the fifteenth century that animals began to be considered as serious subjects for artists.
Discoveries in distant lands were brought back to Europe in the form of skins and drawings, and the scientists, who were beginning to study the natural world and its animals, needed illustrators to depict their finds.
A century later, artists filled huge canvases with exotic birds in exotic landscapes, as well as domesticated fowl or birds to be seen in private collections.
It was from the more scientific approach to the study of animals in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that wildlife art as we know it has developed.
As the nineteenth century ended, many changes came about, particularly in methods of production, new printing processes and the development of photography.
Several artists born around the turn of the century turned to painting wildlife subjects, largely based on their personal experiences in the field.
Gradually, artists broke away from the stifling tradition of illustration to express ideas about wildlife, using the subject of wildlife to express ideas about design and composition, pattern and colour. They were no longer concerned to get every detail right in the photographic sense.
Today the younger artists are not stuck in an old tradition, but are forging a new and exciting approach to wildlife art.
Meet Dan Baldwin, a British artist.
Dan Baldwin creates a unique and immediately recognisable vision in his silkscreen prints. His work is at once both abstract and figurative, reflecting both reality and the world of imagination.
His pieces have been bought by many people of interest including Liam Howlett, Maxim (The Prodigy), Patsy Palmer, Chris Packham, Gem Archer & Andy Bell (Oasis, Beady Eye), Jo Whiley, Petra Ecclestone, Holly Willoughby, Ant McPartlin, Sir Ronald Cohen, Shepard Fairey, Mark Lanegan, Alison Mosshart & Jake Chapman, and he has worked with brands as diverse as Atomic Skis, Max factor, Sara Berman and Paolo Nutini on his comeback album campaign of 2014. He is in the permanent collection of the Groucho Club and Cafe Royal.
To read more on Dan and see his available work, CLICK HERE
