“My work is rooted in landscape and in the living birds and animals as they are part of it. I aim to show how creatures move and to express the visual delight they bring. I try to combine accuracy with artistry.” So the wildlife artist John Busby, who has died aged 87, summed up his approach. As well as portraying the natural world in his inimitable style, Busby also inspired several generations of leading artists: not simply through his drawings and paintings, but also through the more direct medium of teaching.
He was born in Bradford, son of Eric and Margaret Busby. Eric was a director of the department store Busbys’ of Bradford and later, because of his interest in John’s work as an artist, opened the Goosewell Gallery, in the village of Menston, Wharfedale. John was brought up in Wharfedale, where he developed an early interest in nature, especially birds. He attended Ilkley grammar school, and then studied art at Leeds University and Edinburgh College of Art. After graduating in 1955, he travelled to France and Italy before returning to Edinburgh, where he taught drawing and painting at the art college for more than 30 years until his retirement in 1988.
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