A beautiful new book celebrates the work of some of the county's most talented wildlife artists
See rust-red foxes flicker through frosty woods, watch badgers playing through a fringe of ferns, greet a pin-bright hedgehog framed in a bundle of leaves. The wild animals of our countryside are the stars of a glorious collection of prints by some of our finest nature artists.
Pictures of badgers, hares, hedgehogs, deer, otters, voles and moles fill the pages of Beauty of the Beast. They are by printmakers from across the country, from Cornwall to Shetland, including many Norfolk and Suffolk artists. The book focuses on British wild mammals and features more than 450 works of art, created using most methods of printmaking from linocuts to screen prints and wood engravings to etchings.
Suffolk artists include Kate Batchelor, of Weston, near Beccles, Greta Hansen, of Stowmarket, Andrew Haslen, of Preston St Mary and Anne Townshend, of Boxford.
It includes work by renowned Cley-next-the-Sea artist Robert Gillmor, who died in May, and is dedicated to his memory. Robert’s pictures travelled the world, flying thousands of miles from their creation in North Norfolk.
The artist and ornithologist helped design the familiar avocet logo for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and created eight sets of stamps for Royal Mail.
His bold, bright prints captured birds in flight or on the rippling seashore, the close-up lace of a dragonfly wing or the grandeur of a wide-open landscape. Robert illustrated hundreds of books and designed dozens of covers and jackets for the Collins New Naturalist series, as well as decorative prints, cards and logos. The former president of the Society of Wildlife Artists was made an MBE for his services to wildlife art.
Other Norfolk artists featured include Diana Ashdown, of Little Snoring, near Fakenham, Rob Barnes, of Langley, near Loddon, Sarah Bays, Liz Hughes and Vanessa Lubach, of Norwich, Amelia Bowman and Kerry Buck, of Wymondham, Joanna Padfield, of Sheringham and Janette Williams, of Castle Acre.
The book is the work of Marion and Alan Marshall, of Sutton, near Stalham over the border in Norfolk, and likely to be their last large-scale, multi-artist production. For the past 10 years, they have published, as Mascot Media, gloriously illustrated books showcasing the work of some of the country’s most talented printmakers.
Some of their books featured individual artists, others are packed with pictures of a particular animal. They created books focusing on hares, owls, chickens, water and wading birds, gardens, Norfolk and Suffolk landscapes – and the cats which keep many artists company in their studios.
The Printmaker's Cat became a bestseller. Other popular titles include The Artful Hare, Suffolk Jewels and Norfolk Gems. Each book includes short essays on the featured animals or landscapes, and a chance for the artists to explain how they create their prints.
Alan said he had felt particularly honoured to publish Robert Gillmor’s book, Pressing On, calling him “arguably, the UK’s foremost wildlife printmaker".
Marion and Alan run Stalham Books and Art in Stalham High Street alongside Mascot Media, selling their own greetings cards and stationery designs as well as their books.
They have always had a commitment to working locally and Beauty of the Beast is printed on high-quality paper from responsible sources, by Swallowtail Print near Norwich. “We believe it is important to print locally in order to minimise our carbon footprint, and to support local industry," they say.
