Artist tells of voyage following in Darwin’s footsteps

Giant tortoises and frigatebirds are among the exotic species from the Galapagos Islands, west of Ecuador, to feature in a new collection of paintings and photographs by artist Robert E Fuller at his gallery in Thixendale.

The event follows a tour of the Pacific archipelago by Mr Fuller, a columnist in The Yorkshire Post, in May and is supported by the Galapagos Conservation Trust and Royal Geographic Society.

He said: “I stood on the very beach Charles Darwin walked along when he saw marine iguanas and frigatebirds puffing out their cheeks like toads and tried to imagine what it must have been like for him seeing these strange creatures for the first time.

“Incredibly there was no artist on board Darwin’s ship when it stopped in the Galapagos.

“The illustrations that we can see today in Darwin’s book, The Origin of the Species, were made years after his return to England.

“This means there are no original images of the species encountered on the most important voyage in natural history.

“Of course if he had been travelling today, Darwin would have taken a camera. As I followed his footsteps across the islands, I made up for this by taking lots of pictures.”

Mr Fuller’s exhibit, which runs between June 21 and July 13, includes underwater film of sea lions and turtles and of the courtship displays of birds such as waved albatrosses.

He will present a talk and slideshow on his experiences at his gallery on June 28. There will be a range of nature events taking place including falconry, badger and owl walks and jungle bush craft.

Mr Fuller will desxribe his trip to the Galapagos Islands in a piece in The Yorkshire Post’s Country Week on Saturday.