The natural world inspires the work of nature artist, Kim Thompson . She studied wildlife illustration at Dyfed School of Art, West Wales, graduating in the late 1980s and then working in book and magazine publishing. This training, which included taxidermy and field studies, instilled a fascination with nature and strongly influenced her painting style. Kim works primarily in acrylics and oils, creating paintings with vibrant, textured backgrounds as well as more traditional wildlife and animal, portraits studies and landscapes.
Living on the edge of the New Forest in southern England provides endless inspiration but she also travels further afield in search of reference material for her artwork. She regularly visits the wilderness of Botswana where she has led painting and photographic safaris and this year travelled to central India in search of Tigers. In recent years she has been involved in several conservation projects with Artists For Painted Dogs, Sketch for Survival and Arts for Conservation.
This year she has also had a month long exhibition at the New Forest Heritage Centre, Lyndhurst, Hampshire to celebrate the importance of wild places in our lives and the urgent need to protect them.
Kim is represented by Iona House Gallery, Woodstock and the Palais des Vaches Gallery, Lower Exbury. New Forest. She also takes part in the annual Exhibition of Wildlife Art in the Wirral and Hampshire Open Studios and regularly appears as artist in residence at Nature in Art, Gloucester.
www.kimthompsonartist.com