HISTORY & BACKGROUND

My artistic ability emerged at a very early age. At the age of eight I have a clear memory of having a fascination with ‘paint by numbers,’ and painting overtook any other form of amusement. I’m happy to say that I no longer use this artificial technique!

During my secondary school years in Devon I excelled in art, and by the end of my school life, art seemed the most appropriate and natural career path for me to follow. The big catalyst for me, however, was watching a film about the work of David Shepherd.

It was so exciting and inspiring that it immediately sparked off my interest in painting wildlife in oils. After leaving college in Cornwall in 1982, I gradually made the transition from technical illustration to oil painting over the following eight years. By 1990 I was painting wildlife full-time, and following my first solo exhibition at Marwell Hall (Marwell Zoological Park) in Hampshire, I began my regular visits to Africa. I have been traveling to various countries in Africa ever since and feel that my work improves with each exciting trip, as well as my understanding of the natural world.

IDEAS & INSPIRATIONS

The inspiration for the work I do comes from the animals and the landscapes that I see around me. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t see something that makes me wonder what it would look like as a painting! I always try to imagine how I could ‘improve’ the real thing and create a more powerful effect in paint. It is largely the light and atmosphere around the subject that makes me want to paint it. Given the choice of a cheetah with no light or a dead tree in glorious sunlight – I would sooner paint the tree.

Whenever possible I also like to remind people about conservation. It has been said many times before, but we really are the only destructive creatures on this fragile planet. If we don’t look after this world, which belongs to all life - not just the human race, we and everything else around us will eventually suffer the consequences.

FROM PALETTE TO PICTURE

There are many things in modern life designed to make things easier for us. Art has its fare share of easy-to-use materials and fast drying paints etc. but I have to say I am still a bit of a traditionalist, and always use oil paints on stretched linen canvas. I stretch all my own canvasses to a size to suit the painting I have in mind. Initially I produce simple oil sketches in the field, which provide me with extra reference material with regards to the light and particularly the colours of the African landscape. This is very important for me. I take lots of photographs, but often the camera cannot do justice to the subtleties found in real life. When I get home and start working on the paintings the colour sketches that I did in the field will give me more accurate colours than the photographs. The only problem with this approach is that the light is constantly changing and there is very little time to get down all of the information. Apart
from that, the heat can often be hard to cope with for any length of time, and of course I have to keep an eye out for any animal friends that may suddenly appear out of nowhere!

I normally work standing up and have about 4 or 5 paintings on the go at any one time. Once the initial design stage is done, I move on to the next, working in a rota until all paintings have reached the same stage. The following day I will start putting detail into each of them and will carry on until they are approximately half finished. At this point things slow down and I will concentrate more on the individual paintings, carefully monitoring everything and making sure that the overall effect is what I initially had in mind. There is always a period of fine-tuning where I study the work over a day or two, tweaking where necessary, until I obtain the most powerful result.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF TONY FORREST

My day starts at about 7.00am. I begin work at around 8.30am and, if the day is a good one, I can easily continue almost non-stop until 6.00pm, or until the light fails. I have no set routine. I often paint 7 days a week and if I am not actually painting, I am usually thinking about doing so! Painting and wildlife for me are so much more than just a way of earning a living. Without it life would be intolerable. I have never been a lover of the fast frenetic world we live in today. My thoughts are never far away from the great game reserves in Africa and my animal friends that live there. I am a very sentimental person and I fear that people are so preoccupied with their own little patch they call home, that they don’t realize the storm brewing on the horizon.