Our Daily Bill: On Art

[tealin]

After returning from Davos, Wilson was recommended a quiet life, to complete his recovery. While he didn't much like the idea of a career in medical illustration, his artwork didn't slow down at all, only it was of the observational variety. He went sketching in wild and wooded places and made paintings of his beloved birds, but was reluctant to sell any of them 'because it seems like selling a bit of oneself which isn’t even one’s own to sell.'

My pictures are the realization of little things that have been treasured up in my mind, little traits of character picked up crumb by crumb in fields and by hedgerows, at last pieced together and put into the form of something living. — The realization of every happy day I have spent on the hills is in the picture of a stoat I chanced to see; in the snake’s in that little head and one eye is all the fascinating quickness and supple gracefulness of all the snakes I have known ...

He did need to make a living somehow, though, and the idea of selling his artwork in some capacity was floated. He took some samples to a gallery and was rebuffed, but wasn't too put off because he didn't like the markup or their appraisal, and wished he could sell them himself according to his own values:

Do you think I am right in keeping the prices of my beloved little bird-pictures down as low as possible to give the poorer people a chance? I just would love to make them see and feel and interest themselves a little in such things ... If only one could knock out the dealer and sell them to those who want them for what they are, for as much as they would choose to give!

quotes from Edward Wilson of the Antarctic, pp 65-67