Samantha Greenhill

North-west based artist who grew up in Bournemouth Samantha Greenhill creates striking animal portraiture using the medium of pastel and charcoal. Mostly working from dark to light, she gradually builds layers to create depth and texture capturing the realism of the animal beautifully.

'Through my painting I want to encourage others to take a close up and personal look at the amazing wildlife of our planet and to feel a deeper connection with them. It’s not always possible, desirable or sensible to get so close to a wild animal, but if through my art I can narrow the gap between human and animal then I am a happy artist.'

After working with a variety of different mediums over the years, Samantha discovered pastels and decided that this was her favourite due to the high concentration of pigment which allows her to create a rich depth of colour and tone. 'They are a pure delight to work with and I know that the colours will not change as the painting ages.'

To source imagery to work from, Samantha carefully selects photographs that inspire her that are taken by some of the world's top wildlife photographers. After creating preliminary sketches, she then draws the composition on to board and creates an underpainting to establish the tones and then gradually builds layers of pastel with different types of mark-making to represent the textures of the animals fur; the whole process can take around 100 hours for a large painting.