Biography

Since his birth in Twickenham in 1957 he has been surrounded by artistic activity, which has also been stimulated by his fascination with natural history. During his schooldays he frequently visited a local falconer and sketched and painted his Peregrines and Goshawks. Showing early promise at school he experimented with landscapes and surrealism.

During the 1980s he painted seascapes and surfscapes in Devon, Cornwall and the Channel Islands and was successful in selling what he produced. He then took up natural history illustration full time and from 1991 to 1992 he took the 'A' level Art and Design course at Colchester Institute. Two years at the Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design followed in studying for the Higher National Diploma in Technical Illustration (Natural History), which he passed with four distinctions, one for eight orchids in their habitats, painted as part of an illustrated essay. Six plants painted for Dorling Kindersley were published in their Eyewitness Handbook 'Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean'.

Freelance work followed through 1994, including a commission to paint the four British falcon species, which now hang in The Falcon, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. In 1995 Jonathan completed a poster depicting twenty five British wild edible fungi for The BBC Wildlife Magazine. He also began a Master of Arts course in Natural History Illustration at the Royal College of Art, London. Later that year he was invited by the Royal Horticultural Society to exhibit the eight orchids painted at Bournemouth and Poole College, and was awarded a Silver-Gilt Medal. In the same year he also exhibited edible fungi at the Botanical Society of the British Isles Exhibition Meeting at the Natural History Museum, London.

In July 1996, after a fractured skull, Jonathan was unable to complete his study at the Royal College of Art. Later he completed a second BBC Wildlife Magazine commission of both edible and poisonous fungi and also received private commissions. In the same year he exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society's 'Fungus 100', a centennial celebration of the foundation of the British Mycological Society. He then began work on thirteen orchid illustrations for a joint exhibition with other artists at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, as part of one of Kew's Orchid Festivals.

In 1997 he undertook two orchid commissions for English Nature, and exhibited the thirteen orchids at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, from March until July.

Early in 1998 he was again commissioned by the BBC Wildlife Magazine to produce a poster of twenty-three British orchids. Later the magazine published a single fungi illustration.

During 1999 he continued to work on private commissions.

In 2000 he completed a large illustration of a Cymbidium, and during the rest of the year continued with private commissions and field trips to Kent, South Wales, the fens of Suffolk and Norfolk, Buckinghamshire, and Colonsay for orchid reference material during the summer.

In 2001 he illustrated Pyramidal Bugle for the frontispiece of the Flora of Assynt.

2001-2005: private commissions.

In 2006 his Lady's Slipper Orchid illustration was used for the front cover of 'Deadly Slipper', a novel by Michelle Wan about mystery, murder and orchid obsession in the Dordogne, published by Random House.

In-house printing has now been established, so that all the images from the 1991 - 1999 and 1999 - galleries are now available. Images from the Archive are not suitable for reproduction.