When I get the time, I love expressing my passion for animals through painting and photography and will be adding animal artwork and prints for sale when I can. Below are some examples - all have now been sold.
Spectacled Owl (c) Brigid Reilly
Inheriting from my father a love of sketching, photography and the natural world, and encouraged from an early age in all three, I grew up intensely aware of and surrounded by wildlife of every kind.
Whether rearing butterflies and moths, sketching and photographing birds, giving healing to sick hedgehogs, rescuing titmice too icy to feed themselves in the snow, trying to rehabilitate injured pheasants, or giving any one of them a solemn burial when they died, I quickly fathomed the cruelty, but also the beauty and value, of the natural world.
Mauritius Kestrel (c) Brigid Reilly
I have many a childhood memory of driving with my father over hill and dale in search of Elephant Hawk moth caterpillars to rear at home. Then every day we'd make the same trip to cut fresh willowherb to feed the hungry blighters with. But, oh, the joy of seeing the imago emerge safe and well from its pupal case, while I sat there either with a camera or pencil in hand, recording every moment!
With such an upbringing it was inevitable that the natural world - and the ways it was possible to experience, appreciate and connect with it - would become an intrinsic part of me and my outlook on life. For that I owe both my long-suffering parents a debt of gratitude.
European Eagle Owl (c) Brigid Reilly
I studied at Salisbury College of Art between 1983-4 and after that, in between working at the BBC and TV-am in London, was regularly photographing and painting over the years until family life took over. I spent a wonderful week at Gibraltar Point Field Staton, near Skegness, being tutored by founder member of the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA), Robert Gillmor. I was also commissioned by Basingstoke Borough Council to illustrate a couple of wildlife noticeboards for the Black Dam Ponds. However I learned the most through continual sketching and practice, and by regularly selling paintings of birds of prey, many of which are pictured on this site, at both the Hawk Conservancy Trust and local art exhibitions.
Scops Owl (c) Brigid Reilly
All the studies on this page were drawn from original
sketches and photographs, with one exception.
Catching this shy, secretive, diminutive Scops Owl
'out of doors' was a stroke of luck and one where,
to paint him, I had to rely on photographs alone.
All the bird of prey studies on this page and elsewhere on the site I made at The Hawk Conservancy (now Hawk Conservancy Trust), near Andover, Hampshire. All have been sold, but commissions are welcome.
Andean Condor (c) Brigid Reilly
With its 10 foot wingspan, watching South America's largest
vulture is like watching a barn door flying through the sky!
Andean Condors live for up to 50 years and mate for life.
The parents take turns to incubate and both will also take
care of the chick. Young Condors remain dependent on their
parents for over 2 years and take 6-8 years to mature. This
one, George, was flown in educational demonstrations, until
he found his lifelong soul mate and joined a breeding
programme to preserve this incredible species.
Barn Owl sketch (c) Brigid Reilly
Far from being cuddly creatures, owls are as much
hunters at the top of their food chain as hawks,
falcons and eagles. Capturing this is, for me, the
essence of any successful wildlife study and one
I tried to achieve in this sketch here.
African Harrier Hawk (Gymnogene) (c) Brigid Reilly
The African Harrier Hawk or Gymnogene is remarkable for its unique
way of feeding. A flexible tibio-tarsal joint allows it to clamber along
trunks and hang onto tree limbs by its feet, with its wings dangling
down and flapping for balance. It then probes with its slender bill for
insects and their larvae, young animals, eggs or nestlings. This study
is of 'Jimmy', while still in his immature golden brown plumage (they
turn slate blue as adults). He used to demonstrate his extraordinary
feeding habits to audiences at the Hawk Conservancy Trust, Andover.
'Tadhg Wulfric', digital painting (c) Brigid Reilly
Tadhg (pronounced 'Tige') is a big softie. After 5 months of grieving the loss
of my beloved 14 year old German Shepherd, Megan, I decided to look for
a dog to try to fill the monumental void she had left. When I first met Tadhg,
he was a 4 month old whirling dervish who didn't stop spinning in circles for
several minutes, so excited as he that his wonderful breeder (whom he
adored) had come to see him. I knelt down quietly to say hello to him and
the whirling stopped, he looked me straight in the eye for several moments,
then he said to me, so clearly I heard it loudly in my head, "I know you!"
and then he carried on whirling. But that moment of recognition clinched it
for me, and since then the whirling has stopped and Tadhg is now my
wonderful soul mate and best friend. Every day I am grateful to him for
being here.
Communing with bantams, aged 16 (c) J Reilly
Often in the evenings I used to sit inside the hen run where the bantams had
to be enclosed at night to protect them from the fox. But during the day, the
girls would potter free around the garden, being shuffled along occasonally
by our elderly Pyrenean Mountain Dog.
I used to actively encourage all our bantams (I think we had about 6) into
our house with a trail of breadcrumbs. True to their word, they were perfect
house guests. But this stopped when we acquired 'Cockel', a feisty copper
boy who, in spite of possessing more ego and beauty than talent, had the
singular effect of preventing his ladies from socializing with the natives.
The beautiful ducks behind me lived with our neighbour and always came for
a chat. Sadly they were caught one night by our Foxy Whiskered Gentleman,
later in the year this photo was taken. Our hens all survived, except for a
white one, who because of her colour was caught by a local Buzzard.
| 
