For up to date news on my current art projects and to see work in progress please visit my blog:

http://rayscally.blogspot.com

Welcome to my first and new website. In the near future I will be selling prints of my work at very reasonable prices with very limited print runs. I am currently looking into the print processes on the market so these are not currently available but hope to have some for sale in the coming months. I hope to update the website on a regular basis with new artwork, projects and my diary and sketchbook page.

It’s been a busy year with the completion of 3 books which had a major input from me, it kicked off with providing over 30 internal illustrations both colour and black and white for the Cheshire breeding and wintering atlas published by Liverpool University Press. This preceded my first solely illustrated project for my good friend Lee G R Evans, the long awaited reprint of The Ultimate Site Guide to Scarcer British Birds published by Birdguides and finished closely off by Russell Slack’s Rare Birds, Where and When.

This year I have also completed a number of nature reserve information boards for various organisations like Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Bradford Council (see thumbnail) amongst others and many private commissions. I also provided about 30 illustrations for Birdguides for their new iphone garden birds application which can be purchased from their website, see my links page.

I am now currently working on Volume 2 of Russell’s book, see my links page for full details. I am also working on coloured plates for an identification paper on Wing Barred Phylloscopus Warblers with Martin Garner, Roger Riddington and Magnus Robb.

You can see all the publications which I regularly contribute to or sole contributions on the publications page.

My pictures are based on true life observations. All the backgrounds exist in some form or other and I rarely illustrate birds I have not seen. My initial birdwatching in the early days consisted of estuary watching around Dublin Bay at places such as Bull Island and Swords back in the late ‘70’s early ‘80’s

I try to field-sketch as much as possible which includes watercolouring over pencil drawings (see my sketchbook page). I work in pencil, watercolour, gouache and ink, and will experiment in oils when I get the time.

I am widely published in county bird reports throughout the UK, especially in my home county of Cheshire. I have illustrations published in numerous books and magazines such as: The Essential Guide to the Birds of the Isles of Scilly; Birds in Cheshire and Wirral; British Birds; Rare Birds Weekly; Isles of Scilly Nature Review; Spurn Wildlife and Yorkshire Birding amongst many others. I was featured in the Harper Collins’ Calendar for Birdwatch Magazine in 2005. I have just completed a totally new edition of The Ultimate Site Guide to Scarcer British Birds by L G R Evans where I am the sole artist. I have also just completed Rare Birds of Britain and Ireland Vol. 1 by Russell Slack and I am now starting Vol. 2 due to be published the beginning of 2010.

At present I spend most of my birding time on my local east Cheshire 10K square or Spurn Point East Yorkshire amongst the other hotspots in the UK. I have travelled extensively in Europe, North Africa, Middle East and North America in search of birds. I have absolutely no yearning for Southern Hemisphere birding!

For any information on the creation of this website you can e-mail Gary Noden at enquiries@garynoden.co.uk Please contact me with any questions or queries via the contact page, looking forward to hearing from you!