About the Artist
Richard Whittlestone Wildlife Gallery
Situated on the glorious Chatsworth Estate, the Gallery is the permanent home for Richard’s stunning original paintings and extensive range of limited edition prints and ceramics.
His subjects range from popular garden and game birds to native British wildlife and exotic big game.
Brought up in Yorkshire, Richard has loved wildlife since he was a child. Much of his free time was spent observing birds, butterflies and animals in the countryside around his family’s farm. Entirely self-taught, he visited art galleries and museums to develop his technical skills by studying old master paintings.
Over the past 20 years, Richard has become one of the UK’s leading wildlife artists, working in acrylics, watercolours and oils. His inspiration comes from his deep love of the countryside and his own encyclopaedic knowledge of birds and wildlife.
Richard’s originals and prints are popular across the UK, USA and Canada. His work hangs in Woburn Abbey and Castle Howard, while paintings of garden birds are regularly commissioned by the RSPB for its Christmas cards.
All Richard’s paintings include his special trademark – a small image of a fly. It was first introduced in his early paintings of birds, to give the subject a point of interest. Before long, collectors began to notice if it had been left out. The famous fly now appears somewhere in all of Richard’s work – but it takes a keen eye to spot it!
