The Society of Wildlife Artists

Jonathan Pomroy lives in Gilling East, North Yorkshire, an ideal location for sketching on nearby moors, the east coast and river valleys. He is fascinated by weather and its effect on birds and landscape. He also sketches in Northumberland, Anglesey, North Norfolk, the Somerset Levels and Scotland. He enjoys single species sketching projects and recently amassed a large number of field sketches of hawfinches.

Swifts represent a large proportion of Jonathan’s work which led to the publication of his first book On Crescent Wings — a Portrait of the Swift. This was a platform to use his art for swift conservation, which led to him winning the Birdscapes Art for Conservation Award at the 2023 SWLA Mall Galleries exhibition. Also at SWLA exhibitions, in 2024 he won the Michael Harding Watercolour Prize for his painting of swifts and in 2025 ran two well-attended Swift Sketching workshops.

Other publications Jonathan has illustrated include The Screaming Sky and The Ring Ouzel — A View from the North York Moors.

Being appointed an Associate Member of the SWLA in 2025 was an important moment and he sees this as a time to concentrate more on field-based work and hopes to participate in projects with other artists. He believes that art can play an important part in conservation and that an artist’s passion for a subject (such as swifts) can be infectious, encouraging others to help.