About Me

I was born in East Africa and although I have lived in and around London most of my life, I am constantly drawn back to the beautiful creatures and wildlife of the Great Rift Valley - most recently to Tanzania, which deserves to be far better known as a safari destination (but I am rather pleased it isn't). Do read an interview I gave to the company which organises my safaris to remote and interesting parts of the country in search of birds, animals and plants to paint which can be found at https://www.tribes.co.uk/blog/in-the-tribe-face-to-face-with-marcus-rutherford/

Although I have been drawing, painting and making things since I was very young, I am entirely self-taught. I believe that all painting - including botanical and scientific natural history illustration - is representational rather than realistic in the sense that a painting of any three dimentional object is at best a series of blobs of colour placed on a two dimensional surface. It is the alchemy of the transformation which is a unique human skill and something to be celebrated, so rather than try to recreate the "perfect" example of a particular flower or bird, I like to emphasise and focus on the abstract elements of a painting, using texture, colour and form to get beneath the skin of whatever it is I am painting. As far as I am concerned, it is more interesting for the animal or bird, plant or mushroom to be a recognisable individual rather than an idealised example of the type.

I have been foraging wild foods for about 60 years and can now largely distinguish edible stuff from the poisonous and the downright disgusting, having cooked and brewed my way through a lot of plants, mushrooms, berries, snails and other wildlife. I won a National cookery competition (at a time when it was quite unusual for a man even to be seen in the kitchen and the standard was not very demanding) and the prizes went a long way to furnish my first home. The publicity generated led to commissions from popular magazines and for a short period I was selling paintings through the Maas Gallery on Clifford Street, London which is better known for specialising in 19th century Pre-Raphaelite artists. Henry was the dealer at the Gallery at that time and acted as a sort of agent for me - he saw me as a throw-back to the Victorian age of dilettante painters which I suppose I was, since painting was not my primary profession.

Pru Leith was at the time an enormously influential cook and Restaurateur and she was kind enough to introduce me to her publisher who sat me down and made me confront the arrogance of trying to maintain two very full-time occupations at the same time. The result of his pep talk (and the reality of having to support a rapidly expanding family) meant that illustration had to become a passionate pastime rather than a primary source of income. Now, with financial imperatives not so important, I can focus once again on creative things.

My passion for natural history has not diminished, and I still enjoy foraging for mushrooms and wild produce. These days it is not the solitary occupation it once was, and I meet plenty of people foraging for chic modern restaurants with the result that the pressure on the countryside has increased dramatically. My philosophy is that you should only collect for personal consumption and only because something is delicious to eat, rather than because it is able to be eaten without dying. When I want paint what I find, there is often a race against time to complete a painting before the specimen becomes too spoiled to eat.

When I retired from a career as an International disputes lawyer working in the City of London, I need something to keep me busy and started to investigate the strange men who were collecting specimens of natural history in Africa in the 19th century. In the course of wandering through museum collections, public and private archives in Europe and Africa, I stumbled upon an absolutely extraordinary story which led me to put to one side the stuffed birds and bottled insects and focus on unravelling the truth behind the last of the "great" African explorations of the 19th century.

Some of my writing is to be found on the "Research and Writing" section of this website. I am also hoping to publish a book about the Stanley's expedition to find a strange German Jew who had converted to Islam before trying to lose himself in the darkest corner of central Africa.

Copyright and legal notice

As the creator of all my own paintings and most of the photographs on this website, I am the owner of the copyright, which means that the right to exploit the image remains with me, even when the original painting is sold. Where I have used images owned by others, I have given appropriate acknowledgement.

There are certain images which have already been turned into cards and which I can turn into limited edition prints, and if you buy or commission a painting, you might want to have your personal cards made. I will happily give you a quote for this if you contact me via the "Contacts" page.