A latter-day John Gould has been photographing and painting Tasmanian wildlife in its natural surroundings, and the resulting finely detailed and lyrical watercolours have taken Tasmania by storm.
Maurice John Pledger is a quietly spoken country man from Hertfordshire who has fallen head over heels in love with Tasmania.
His exhibition of 34 studies of fish, birds and marsupials has just opened at Number 71 Antiques in Launceston. Within a few days, half were sold and Maurice received commissions for several more.
At 34, Maurice Pledger is acknowledged as one of Britain’s leading wildlife artists, renowned for the vibrancy and authenticity of his work.
He is rapidly developing an international reputation, with commissions from the US, Europe and now Australia.
Maurice accepted a commission from the Tasmanian Film Corporation to commemorate the World Fly Fishing Championships in the Central Highlands last year. His paintings of brown trout at Penstock were later issued as limited edition prints.
The commission combined two of Maurice’s passions – fishing and painting.
When he returned to Britain his sketchbook and photo album were full of the animals and birds he wanted to paint.
His Tasmanian studies were completed as a relaxation from a “bread and butter commission” – a Spotter’s Guide to North American birds.
“All day I’d be painting these birds from photos and I’d be thinking I’d really like to paint a wombat or an echidna or a kookaburra. In the evening, I’d put the birds away and start painting for myself. I might start at 7pm and go on painting till two or three in the morning.
“For the past year I’ve just lived and breathed Tasmania.”
For a man with no formal art training, Maurice has had startling success in the art world. By the time he was 17, he was contributing illustrations to the World Atlas of Birds, and at 21 had his first one-man exhibition in London. The exhibition, like all his subsequent ones, was a sell-out.
“I’ve just always wanted to paint birds and wildlife,” he says modestly.
“I’ve drawn or sketched since I was 11 or 12 and I’ve always sketched birds. I’m doing exactly what I’ve always wanted to do.”
Maurice was dissauded from going to art school when he left school by an illustrator who specialised in painting butterflies. This man recognised Maurice’s natural talent and eye for fine detail, and told him bluntly that art school would be a waste of time.
“Just go ahead and do what you want to do,” he advised the 15-year-old, and within two years Maurice had his first commission.
That was soon followed by others from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the World Wildlife Fund, the Bradbury Mont, the British Post Office and Royal Doulton. Maurice’s Birds of the English Hedgerow series are limited edition collectors’ plates.
Maurice also developed a name as a book illustrator, as his talent for fine detail and accuracy of colour and psoture were suited to reference works.
As well as his Birds of North America, he has produced a book of 24 major paintings of English garden birds, and an illustrated Guide to International Game Birds, (with a foreword by the Duke of Edinburgh), as well as a children’s series on British wildlife.
His acheivements in book illustration were recognised in 1987, when he was awarded the Francis Williams Illustration Award, sponsored by the Victoria & Albert Museum, an award made only once every five years.
While in Tasmania for the exhibition – his first in Australia – Maurice hopes to get to Brumby’s Creek and the Lakes River for a spot of fly fishing and a chance to observe at first hand an animal he has only seen in zoos – the platypus.
Sitting quietly fishing allows him to focus on his surroundings, to get closer to nature and see things in a new light.
“I find nature so intriguing – I want to look closer and see more detail; I could spend a lifetime painting the base of a tree and still not paint it all.”