Member since Friday 28th Oct, 2011
Norman McCanch was born in Wales in 1953. He originally trained as a taxidermist but then spent three years working for Trinity House as a lighthouse keeper around the coasts of England and Wales, before studying graphic design and illustration at Canterbury College of Art.
A keen bird ringer, he has held a licence since 1973 and was formerly warden of the bird observatories at Sandwich Bay and the Calf of Man. He gained a PhD in Avian Ecology from the University of Liverpool, and is a Chartered Biologist. He now teaches Biology and Chemistry at a Grammar school in Kent.
He wrote and illustrated ?A Lighthouse Notebook? and numerous articles on natural history and the countryside for a wide range of publications, while he has provided artwork for Birds of the Western Palaearctic, the Automobile Association and a number of bird reports particularly that for Kent.
In 2003 he won the Identification plate category in the 'Artist of the Year Awards' run by Birdwatch magazine and has recently supplied artwork to Eurotunnel for information panels displayed at Samphire Hoe near Dover.
He has travelled throughout northern Europe and also visited Scandinavia, Hungary, Spain, Greece, West Africa, Ethiopia, India and Canada in search of wild subjects for painting.
Norman now lives in East Kent and spends most of his free time sketching in the woods and marshes along the Stour valley between Canterbury and the sea, although family ties take him back to the Pembrokeshire coast and seabird islands whenever possible.
Essentially a watercolour artist, he also enjoys the challenge of working in other media particularly oils, acrylic and pen & ink. His art is inspired by first hand experience and he usually works directly from nature, compiling sketches and reference notes to use later in the studio.
