Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do you do commissions?

A: Yes, but it’s not cheap – for example a consultant or mechanic would charge £50 – £100 per hour for his services and my paintings on average take 50-70 hours to complete. Even at those rates you’d be looking at a minimum of £2500. I don’t paint humans.

Q: Why tigers?

A: They are the most beautiful creatures on the planet in my opinion. The fact that I got to stroke one (see Brief History) cemented me to their cause.

Q: How do you decide which tigers to paint?

A: From a composition point of view I like to paint animals that look relaxed and have a natural expression. From a practical point of view I photograph tigers all over Britain and anywhere else in the world that I visit. Any one of them can and do get used as reference for paintings. I will quite often mix two or three different tigers into one image to get the effect that I want.

Q: How long does it take to finish a painting?

A: It depends on the difficulty of the image, the longest painting in the collection is “Cool”, that took me 150 work hours to complete. On average I take about 50-70 work hours to complete a painting, not including composition and design.

Q: Have you ever been to see tigers in the wild?

A: I haven’t – so far. I would love, more than anything else to see wild tigers. I have a naturally cynical outlook however, and I can imagine spending thousands of pounds in India or China on some sort of organized photo hunt that results in no more than a tail seen disappearing into a bush. Zoo animals can be very rewarding if you are prepared to stay with them for a few hours. My long-term plans involve seeing a lot of tigers in the wild.

Q: Do you support zoos or do you wish to see all animals free from cages?

A: I support zoos. The research, conservation and education provided by zoos, in my opinion outweighs (for the species) any distress of captivity for zoo animals – most of which were born there. Specifically with tigers I have spent hundreds of hours in zoos and have only ever seen one tiger that showed signs of stress caused by captivity (in Canada) and that was because he had been separated from his cubs (for their own good I might add).

Q: Do you contribute any profits from your business back to tiger conservation?

A: The business is young at the moment, however I have a plan for conservation that should answer your question:

Now and early days: as long as the business is making enough money for me to survive on I will be sponsoring captive tigers with as much money as my accountant allows.
Business going well: I will continue to sponsor captive tigers and will also adopt the following causes: Britain – The Woodland Trust; World – David Shepherd Foundation, WHF & Greenpeace.
Business going very well: I want to become active in the conservation of habitats for wildlife the world over (I know, this sounds like a “miss world” comment but it is genuinely sincere), specifically the areas that remain for the wild tiger. Any donations or conservation activities I make will be posted on the News Page as and when.

Q: What are the sizes of the the prints - I do not understand A1, A2 etc

A4 is 297mm x 210mm
A3 is 420mm x 297mm
A2 is 594mm x 420mm
A1 is 840mm x 594mm

Greetings cards are A5 which is A4 size folded in half.