The Society of Wildlife Artists

Chris Wallbank is a painter, drawer and printmaker. His work explores pictorial space and the experience of landscape; more often than not in the wild environments where he is most at home working in response to the changing elements and rhythm of nature. He is interested in the role visual art can play in presenting themes of ecology in a new light leading him to collaborate on numerous conservation projects. These range from the long-term monitoring of breeding guillemot colonies on Skomer Island to the preservation of urban black kites across the metropolis of New Delhi. Chris is also a member of faculty at the Royal Drawing School where he currently enjoys sharing in the discovery of natural history through drawing, whilst teaching on the school’s Young Artists programme. 

During his time exhibiting with the SWLA, Chris has been awarded two SWLA bursaries and the Cuthbert Mill Paper Award. In 2019 he was awarded both the Wales Prize and Visitors Choice Award at Wales Contemporary for his drawings of guillemot colonies. His work is held in national and international collections and has been exhibited widely, including; at the Wellcome Collection, Christie’s London, The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition and The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize. Solo exhibitions include, Cheng-Kim Loke Gallery at WWT Slimbridge, RSPB Ynys-hir and a drawing installation exhibited throughout Sheffield Cathedral for Festival of the Mind. Past illustration clients have included; Bloomsbury Publishing, S4C television, Strata Florida Heritage Landscape Project, Journal of Landscape Architecture and British Birds.