On this visit I was most fortunate and managed to catch Richard during a lull, it provided a great chance to talk to him about his art and the techniques he uses to produce those works of art that grace the pages of several 'classic books' such as; The Butterflies of Britian & Ireland, Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain & Ireland and Field Guide to the Dragonflies & Damselflies of Great Britain & Ireland among many others. He told me he actually spends up to eight hours every day in his studio, this can often be seven days a week if his artistic energy is flowing, and he is such a prolific artist that it made me wonder if that flow is ever off! All this work is done with the background help of BBC Radio 4, and I think the outcome is more than worthy of my licence fee, and I'll wager a bet that a lot of you UK Butterflyers think likewise.
Richard kindly showed me a proof print of a page from his latest work in progress Field Guide to the Micro Moths of Great Britain & Ireland (please don't quote me on this being the finalised title) which should be completed and ready to go on sale around the time of next years Birdfair, it will be a companion volume to the Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain & Ireland and can I state here that we owe British Wildlife Publishing a great vote of thanks for bringing these superb Field Guides to the market, they were undoubtably needed. I'm going to mention the 'nag factor' here because I've asked Richard many times at many Birdfairs about the chance of a book on Britain's Micro Moths - along with many others of like mind I would guess - and the outcome is just a twelve month from completion now, which is simply excellent news. The actual micro moth art is copied using good condition museum specimens, top quality photographs and living insects, he then precisely paints the image around three times larger than life, and modern digital scanning techniques then produces a life size copy, or larger if needed for illustration purposes, the outcome was what he showed me on the proof, superb quality portraits of our native micro moths, I've got a feeling that this work could be his very best yet, we have to consider the size of the insects he's illustrating, he also mentioned that he's found it immensely rewarding and enjoyed it probably more than anything else he's done, and that in itself is really some statement.
Richard Lewington is a very modest man, when I mentioned that he should consider doing a book about himself and his art, he resisted, yet had to say that a certain publisher had sounded him out about such a book. I mentioned to him the comparitive similarities between him and his earlier counterpart F W Frohawk and the fact that Frowhawk never actually wrote any auto-biography, yet fortunately he left lots of unpublished notes that went to comprise the book about his life and work that was later compiled and written by June Chatfield. I gently chided him that surely he could not let all that knowledge and gifted talent go without sharing it, what an inspiration that would be for our next and future generations of aspiring natural history artists, and if he needs a little 'professional help' (read ghost writer) then I would strongly suggest he asks the very talented Peter Marren (Author of two New Naturalists titles and several other highly respected books) now that would be - to use a rather glitzy Americanism - 'A Dream Team' - I will let my imagination free reign on the outcome of such a book...and so if Richard should just happen to read this short article (and why should he not I ask...this is after all UK Butterflies!!!) it really is time for him to seriously consider such a book.
You can find out more by visiting http://www.richardlewington.co.uk
Bill
