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See rust-red foxes flicker through frosty woods, watch badgers playing through a fringe of ferns, greet a pin-bright hedgehog framed in a bundle of leaves.
The wild animals of our countryside are the stars of a glorious collection of prints by some of our finest nature artists.
Pictures of badgers, hares, hedgehogs, deer, otters, voles and moles fill the pages of Beauty of the Beast. They are by printmakers from across the country, from Cornwall to Shetland, including many Norfolk and Suffolk artists. The book focuses on British wild mammals and features more than 450 works of art, created using most methods of printmaking from linocuts to screen prints and wood engravings to etchings.
It includes work by renowned Cley-next-the-Sea artist Robert Gillmor, who died in May, and is dedicated to his memory.
Robert’s pictures travelled the world, flying thousands of miles from their creation in North Norfolk.
The artist and ornithologist helped design the familiar avocet logo for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and created eight sets of stamps for Royal Mail.
His bold, bright prints captured birds in flight or on the rippling seashore, the close-up lace of a dragonfly wing or the grandeur of a wide-open landscape. Robert illustrated hundreds of books and designed dozens of covers and jackets for the Collins New Naturalist series, as well as decorative prints, cards and logos. The former president of the Society of Wildlife Artists was made an MBE for his services to wildlife art.
Other Norfolk artists featured include Diana Ashdown of Little Snoring near Fakenham, Rob Barnes of Langley near Loddon, Sarah Bays, Liz Hughes and Vanessa Lubach of Norwich, Amelia Bowman and Kerry Buck of Wymondham, Joanna Padfield of Sheringham and Janette Williams of Castle Acre.
Suffolk artists include Kate Batchelor of Weston near Beccles, Greta Hansen of Stowmarket, Andrew Haslen of Preston St Mary and Anne Townshend of Boxford.
The book is likely to be the last large-scale multi-artist production for Marion and Alan Marshall of Sutton, near Stalham, who, for the past 10 years have published, as Mascot Media, gloriously illustrated books showcasing the work of some of the country’s most talented printmakers.
Some of their books featured individual artists, others were packed with pictures of a particular animal. They created books focusing on hares, owls, chickens, water and wading birds, gardens, Norfolk and Suffolk landscapes – and the cats which keep many artists company in their studios.
The Printmakers Cat became a bestseller. Other popular titles include The Artful Hare, Suffolk Jewels and Norfolk Gems. Each book includes short essays on the animals or landscapes being featured and a chance for the artists to explain how they create their prints.
Alan said he had felt particularly honoured to publish Robert Gillmor’s book, Pushing On, calling him: “Arguably the UK’s foremost wildlife printmaker.”
Marion and Alan run Stalham Books and Art in Stalham High Street alongside Mascot Media, selling their own greetings cards and stationery designs as well as their books.
They have always had a commitment to working locally and Beauty of the Beast is printed on high-quality paper from responsible sources, by Swallowtail Print of Drayton, near Norwich. “We believe it is important to print locally in order to minimise our carbon footprint, and to support local industry,” they said.
