Esther Gane

From an early age, I've always harboured a love of animals and art. When I retired from the office-working world, this gave me an opportunity to finally combine my passions.

Primarily, I prefer to use the medium of scratchboard to capture the fur and feather textures of both large and small animals using various tools to achieve a realistic effect.

Scratchboard etching has seen a revival in the past 50 years and is now used by artists worldwide as a fine art medium. The boards are prepared and comein various sizes and have a masonite base with a layer of Kaolin (China) clay which is covered with Indian ink. My personal preference is to use the tip of a scalpel blade to expose the underlying white layer and I sometimes also use a small fibreglass brush and tattoo needles.