Karl Taylor was brought up in Penzance in the 1960s, a town then very much dependent on the fishing trade. As a result his interest in nature was fostered from an early age and by eleven he was a budding ornithologist. Karl Taylor’s own formal art training began in 1986 when he attended the Camarthenshire College of Art and Technology, winning an award for outstanding achievement in wildlife illustration. After graduating with an HND he moved to Bristol to become a freelance artist/illustrator and continues his interest in art and wildlife. Given this background, the docks and waterways of the City of Bristol and the coast of Severn Beach have been favourite haunts and sources of inspiration. It has helped influence and develop his work as he relates to the birds and creatures that he sees. Karl’s pictures regularly feature man-made objects, sometimes very large; this is a deliberate contrast of size and colour against the often very small birds that are the real subjects of the paintings. His work has been shown at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and he has regularly exhibited at the Wildlife Art Society. Taylor regards his finest achievement to date as having twice been selected for the prestigious ‘Birds in Art’ annual show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin, USA.