Ballpoint pen artist draws British wildlife

Artist Cy Baker draws a red squirrel with a ball point pen

An award-winning artist has visited 53 nature reserves around the UK to produce drawings using a ballpoint pen.

Cy Baker, who was Wildlife Artist of the Year in 2022, partnered with the Wildlife Trusts for the year-long project and the unusual work will be auctioned with half the sale revenue going to the charity.

The 16 drawings are made on canvas and each used several pens, though Mr Baker, from Hampshire, prefers only to use black ink.

"I like softness and light and shade and subtlety, rather than anything too brash, so I've gone monochromatic," he said.

"I think it's got a certain atmosphere and dare I say spirituality to it that can't be communicated in any other way."

A Badger, drawn by Cy Baker using a ballpoint pen

He continued: "I've been laying on my belly three feet away from a badger, I've seen seal pups in their breeding grounds, incredible landscapes - it's been amazing.

"These animals and landscapes probably only exist because of the work that the Wildlife Trusts do, so that's what I wanted to try and capture."

Mr Baker works at his studio in Netley

He noted: "Some people will love this kind of work and other people will hate it. That's the nature of art.

"The animals and the landscapes that I depict are going to be helped as a result of the art that I do."

Seal pups, drawn by Cy Baker with a ballpoint pen

Recently Mr Baker wrote to The King, who is patron of the Wildlife Trusts and received in reply a letter from Buckingham Palace informing him that The King had been impressed by his work.