Stunt Stoat's TV Debut

Did you catch my stunt stoat on BBC's The One Show this week? Presenter Mike Dilger described it as the only performing stoat in the world!!!

Click on the link to watch my footage of this daredevil stoat as it negotiates the maze I made for it.

I became enchanted with a family of stoats after I spotted them in my garden last year. I built them an assault course, which I baited to encourage them to run, so that I could watch them closely for this painting.

Before I sit down to paint a new wildlife subject I need to study it closely. But it is difficult to get much more than a fleeting glimpse of a stoat in the wild. I wanted to see the whole animal, including its feet, so I needed to get it up off the ground for long enough to get some good shots of it.

The assault course helped me to do this and the CCTV footage of its antics gave me a real insight into the behaviour of these tenacious creatures, which in turn has inspired some new artwork!

I'm giving a talk on how I trained the stoats to run the course as well as on how I study all my wildlife subjects at my gallery in Thixendale at 7.30pm on Saturday 20th.  Click here if you want to book on.