I've loved wildlife since I was a child, and over the years that love has woven itself into almost everything I create. There's something about painting creatures, really looking at them, understanding their character that brings me an enormous amount of joy.
Hedgehog in Spring was inspired by one of my very favourite garden visitors. There's a hedgehog that appears in my garden from time to time, and it never fails to delight me, though it also never fails to outwit me. No matter how quietly I move or how quickly I reach for my camera, it's gone. A rustle, a flash of spines, and that's that. I've never managed a single photograph.
So I painted it instead.
This piece is part of a series I created celebrating five of my favourite creatures set against the seasons I love most. Spring felt just right for the hedgehog; that sense of something small and determined emerging into a world of snowdrops and fresh colour, full of quiet purpose. I wanted to capture that feeling: the charm of a creature going about its business, entirely unbothered, while the season blooms around it.
Painted using specialist colourfast, water-based paint on glass and set in a beautiful white wooden moulded frame, it's a piece with real warmth and personality.
