Hidden cameras give insight into wild world of the Yorkshire Wolds

The Best of British Wildlife in Art is a celebration of the nation’s natural heritage with paintings of Scottish stags, red squirrels from the Yorkshire Dales and birds including puffins and peregrines from the Yorkshire Wolds.

Also in the exhibition, which has seen Mr Fuller spend months filming and photographing the animals and birds in their natural habitats, are the creatures he sees in his own garden.

Visitors to the Thixendale gallery will not only be able to see the intricately detailed paintings, but watch the live camera feeds from the artist’s garden. The hidden surveillance cameras, which allow him to study the subjects of his work and gain a real understanding of them, capture the day-to-day lives of owls, kestrels, stoats and weasels.

Mr Fuller is also hoping the exhibition will encourage visitors to think about the wildlife around them.

“People travel abroad to watch wildlife and yet we have stunning animals right here in Britain,” he said. “This exhibition celebrates the wildlife hidden in the gardens, fields and hedgerows of our countryside.”

In order to capture the animals in the detail he does, Mr Fuller spends months studying them in their natural environment before putting paint to canvas. It is this which helps him to create the startlingly life-like collection of portrait-style paintings which make up the exhibition.

“I like my paintings to be as realistic as possible in order to do each creature justice,” Mr Fuller said. “I paint every feather, every hair.”

The exhibition runs at The Robert Fuller Gallery until December 1.