Meet the maker eric petrie

I am a painter of wildlife. What intrigues me as a painter is texture - animals and birds have as individual a pattern of scales, fur, feathers and skin as a human being has of facial features - and it is a challenge to me to get them onto the canvas.
I was born in Walthamstow, in London; grew up trying to avoid being educated at the Monoux school - while learning fieldcraft in Epping Forest from my scoutleader's father, an old rogue who had once been a poacher. After several jobs - quality control engineer for Polydor, child-care assistant, city clerk - I went to college and spent 6 years in libraries - I became, in turn, a teacher and then a priest in the Church of England.
At the same time as all of this I was a cartoonist and writer for a couple of magazines, roadie, itinerant poet and folksinger, and lover of animals - we had a dog, a horse, chickens, and ducks in the garden of one house in the East End of London and grew most of our own veg! An exhibition of my Rock, Jazz and Blues portraits was held in the West Midlands in 2005.
When I was medically retired some 4 years ago I took up painting full-time and switched to my first love, animals and birds. So come and look at my work - you will not be disappointed.