ABOUT MARIANNE

Marianne Nightingale in Sri Lanka

After a visit to India in 1996 and seeing my first wild elephant, I knew that my life as a textile designer and artist painting on silk and leather would change radically and that I had to devote the rest of my life as a wildlife artist working for animal and habitat conservation.

Until that time I taught Art Therapy for Special Needs adults and designed One of a Kind clothes, working with natural materials – painting on silk, leather and linen and embellished with hand and machine embroidery.  This led to my mastery of the notoriously difficult art of marbling, not on paper but silk and leather and working with top designers in the fashion and gift industry.  The best design was a marbled leather World War 1 Flying Helmet, sold with split screen goggles!

Then we went to India……………

We absolutely loved India, the sights, sounds, smells and completely anarchic way of driving, (deep Yoga breathing is very helpful at times like that)!!  Our first visit was to Nagahole NP and it was there that we saw our first wild elephant which was a defining moment in my life and I was hooked on wildlife forever.  From that visit to the present I have evolved my unique way of working as a wildlife artist, by painting on silk, painting on leather and any other medium that I could work – even hessian!  As with everything I seem to have stumbled into, I am an entirely self taught wildlife artist and the learning continues as life goes by!

Then we went to Sri Lanka………Conservation

So the life’s work continues and the wildlife paintings shown  on the Originals page  Originals will allow me to share with you the truly natural world of  some of the animals I have been privileged to see.