Richard Lewington (born 1951) is a British wildlife artist renowned for his exquisite eye for detail, especially with lepidoptera.

Biography

Born in 1951, Richard Lewington resides and works in Oxfordshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Lewington's father and grandfather were both countrymen that kept extensive collections of insects, and they were especially interested in butterflies. Lewington has commented that he believes that this is where his interest in wildlife began. As a boy, Lewington used to draw birds but once he graduated from college in the early 1970s, he began illustrating insects. He has a younger brother, , who is a successful bird artist.

Education

Richard Lewington attended Berkshire College of Art and Design where he received his education.

Career

Richard Lewington is a freelance illustrator who specializes in illustrating wildlife, but more specifically he illustrates a larger amount of

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

and

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

. He has made a comment that states that there is no greater diversity of a subject to illustrate because there is an infinite range of shapes, colours and textures. Lewington occasionally paints vertebrates,

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur o ...

, amphibians, reptiles, and

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s. He has also been involved in an app that was being developed that allowed the user to view different kinds of British bumblebees, and his job was to illustrate all the different bumblebees. He is recorded to attend the British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water in August each year. Lewington has been able to be successful due to his various skills in observing, being a miniaturist, and having knowledge in his subject matter. He has also been able to illustrate a variety of children's books.

Success

In 2012 Lewington won a commission to paint ten butterfly images for a set of first-class postage stamps for Royal Mail, which were available from 11 July 2013. He designed a further set of six Royal Mail postage stamps, released in October 2020, featuring insects.

Work

Richard Lewington's work and illustrations appear in the following works: * ''The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland'' * ''Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland'' * ''The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland; Guide to Garden Wildlife'' * ''Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland'' * ''Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe'' * ''Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland'' * ''Field Guide to the Micro-Moths of Great Britain and Ireland'' * ''Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland'' * ''A Guide to House and Garden Spiders'' * ''Guide to the Butterflies of Britain'' (Field Studies Council Occasional Publications) * ''A Guide to the Day-flying Moths of Britain'' (Folding chart) * ''Collins British Butterfly Guide'' (Collins Pocket Guide) * ''The Natural History of Oak Tree'' * ''Mitchell Beazley Pocket Guide to Butterflies'' * ''Essential Entomology: An Order-by-Order Introduction'' * ''Collins Butterfly Guide'' * ''The Most Complete Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe'' (Collins Guides) * ''How to Identify - Butterflies'' * ''Guide des papillons d'Europe et d'Afrique du Nord : 440 espèces illustrées en 2000 dessins en couleurs'' * ''Collins Field Guide - Butterflies of Britain and Europe'' * ''Collins Butterfly Guide'' * ''The Most Complete Field Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe'' * ''The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland: Oecophoridae to Scythrididae'' v. 4, Pts. 1 & 2 * ''The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland: Lasiocampidae to Thyatiridae'' v. 7, Pt. 2 * ''The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland: Yponomeutidae to Elachistidae'' v. 3 * ''Guide to Insects of the British Isles'' * ''Insects of the Northern Hemisphere'' * ''Butterfly Watching'' * ''Insects of the Falkland Islands'' * ''Insects: American Nature Guides'' * ''The Pocket Guide to Insects of the Northern Hemisphere'' * ''Insects of Great Britain and Europe'' (Junior Nature Guides) * ''Guide des papillons d'Europe et d'Afrique du Nord : 440 espèces illustrées en 2000 dessins en couleur'' * ''Die Tagfalter Europas und Nordwestafrikas'' * ''A Guide to Caterpillars of the Butterflies of Britain and Ireland'' * ''Beknopte veldgids Nachtvlinders: alle soorten van Nederland en België'' * ''Tous les papillons de France et d'Europe'' * ''Guide des libellules : De France et d'Europe'' * ''De Nieuwe vlindergids''

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewington, Richard 1951 births Living people 20th-century British painters British male painters 21st-century British painters British illustrators British entomologists 20th-century British male artists 21st-century British male artists