An exhibition of wildlife paintings and drawings, including many never seen before in public, by popular artist Terence Lambert is being staged at the Museum of Modern Art, Machynlleth until February 4.

Members of the public will have an opportunity to meet Terence, who lives near Machynlleth, when he gives a free talk about his work at 12 noon on Wednesday, January 18.

Terence’s career was launched in the early ‘70s with his illustrations for the Collins Books of British Birds and he was quickly recognised as an important new talent in the world of ornithological painting.

His past projects have taken him on expeditions across the Himalayas, Africa, and North America and to Oman where he was commissioned to produce six major paintings for the Sultan of Oman. Other major collectors include the McCartneys and the Astor family.

His work has also been selected for many of the world’s most prestigious wildlife exhibitions, including The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin, USA and the inaugural show of the Society of Wildlife Art for the Nation at the Guildhall in London.

In 1999, the Welsh Arts Council funded a major retrospective exhibition that travelled throughout Wales. His work has been reproduced in more than 40 publications to date and his repertoire of medium has extended from watercolour to include a mastery of mixed medium on paper and canvas, huge pencil drawings and a unique method of working with ink on scraperboard.

“The Surrey countryside was my playground, my countryman father my guide,” said Terence. “Like all children before me, I collected everything that nature had discarded, feathers, bones, butterflies and eggs, all lovingly catalogued in scrapbooks and shoeboxes and stashed under my bed.

“Through my frequent and solitary rambles, I witnessed the harsh reality of predator prey encounters that were later to occur in many of my paintings. I joined the predator pack. Armed with a fishing rod, I pursued every species of fish that swam in the lakes and rivers within bicycle distance from home.

“It was there I judged the weight of a kingfisher that used my hand-held cane as a perch to plunge at the fry nipping at the discarded crusts floating under my rod. Daily visits eventually led to all night expeditions. There were times when these extended to whole weeks away from home, having a negative effect on my academic studies, but it was opening my eyes to the natural world…. feeding my appetite and knowledge that was to inform the next 40 years painting, my passion.

“I didn’t choose to become an artist inspired by the natural world; it was printed on my DNA. I don’t have a preferred medium, believing that one method informs another. I prepare pencil studies, followed by more complex drawings before painting. At each stage, changes occur so the final work experiences its own evolution.

“The ability to draw with confidence and accuracy is the great liberator, allowing the artist’s observation and imagination freedom to create unique images.”

MOMA Machynlleth is open from Monday to Saturday, 10 am to 4pm.