St. Lucia Parrot Painting

Christopher Anthony Cox is among the few recognized wildlife artists in the Caribbean. A St. Lucian born in Toronto, Canada on May 21, 1967, he currently makes his home in St. Lucia with his wife and 3 children.

Christopher's work has won him wide acclaim in his native St. Lucia and abroad. His depictions have been featured in a variety of publications, most notably in A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies, Raffaele et al. (1988), published by Princeton University Press.

Christopher started painting wildlife and environmental themes when he joined the St. Lucia Forestry Department over 20 years ago. Countless hours of fieldwork, in some of the most remote forests on the island, awakened his appreciation for the stunning diversity of wild plants and animals. His keen love for nature and interest in conservation has been the inspiration behind his work.

Christopher works primarily in watercolour and acrylic, sometimes combining the two media to capture the subtlety of birds plumages and the muted play of light and shadow in the forest environment.

He draws his inspiration from renowned wildlife artists that include Robert Bateman, Don R. Eckelberry and John James Audubon.

- What art means to you
"...conveying the beauty and wildness of the animals and their habitats. These are among the subjects that I am mandated by my work to protect for future generations, so that is where the themes I depict hold special value to me. Painting is creating small worlds on canvas (or paper) that I want people to momentarily live in when they view my work. I think that I have accomplished this when the viewer can sense the dampness of the foliage, the brilliance of the suns rays sifting through the canopy and the likeof course being highly critical of my own work, it is rare when I think I have truly achieved the spirit in the composition."