DUNGSCAPE
Connecting art, natural science, and conservation to showcase the ecological importance of healthy dung.
“Dungscape” draws on direct sketches from museum natural history collections (Bristol & London) and Knepp Estate rewilding project, to inform two large oil paintings. These landscapes demonstrate the wildlife community that thrives around dungpats in the absence of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
The project is generously supported by The Society of Wildlife Artists’ Natural Eye bursary award.
Work in progress
Sketchbook
A set of preparatory studies in a concertina sketchbook, mostly from museum collections, many using a microscope, completed between July and October 2025. The specimens broadly match this spreadsheet of candidates for Dungscape oil paintings, formulated in consultation with staff and volunteers at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, and the Natural History Museum (London).
The spreadsheet holds information from my observation, research, and conversations with curators (see acknowledgments and references). This is designed to ensure the finished paintings are credible in terms of behaviour, scale, context etc.
The sketches highlight museum collections and curators as a direct source of artistic reference. My favourite figurative art has expressive impact, observational rigour and anatomical sense. In the context of such an ecosystem, the creatures have behaviours and characteristics that as a layperson I would miss. For example that only the male purple emperor butterflies have iridescent wings and visit dung, or that late successional fly larvae wouldn’t be present on a steaming fresh dungpat. By including labels, pins, and notes, the sketches hope to draw attention to the cumulative inheritance of collections, and the value of organisation, preservation, and documentation.
Diptych
The Dungscape diptych is a pastoral scene, with flora & fauna directly referencing museum collections, and Knepp rewilding project. Bats and swallows swoop overhead catching insects on the wing. Both paintings are 120×90cm, oil on stretched canvas.
With dung (cow and rabbit) in the foreground, pronounced foreshortening allows the smaller invertebrates to be scaled up to be easily visible. Impasto medium gives plasticity to the dungpats.
To enable realistic settings for nocturnal and diurnal wildlife, the two paintings form a diptych, one set in daylight, the other at dusk, to read as a continuous landscape when hung adjacent.
Quiz
Designed as a fun way for people of all ages to engage with the serious subjects within the project. This quiz relates to the two main paintings. The resolution on the images above isn’t quite high enough to spot all the smallest elements - better to see the work in real life!
Exhibitions
Solo exhibition at Knepp Rewilding Project
15th August - 7th September 2026
Dungscape will be shown alongside the drawings, sketches, prints and more, at the world-renowned “trailblazing 3,500-acre rewilding project” in Horsham, West Sussex.
I’m honoured that Charles Burrell (co-owner of Knepp estate and Knepp Wildland Foundation trustee) will be opening the show. Here he is with Erica McAlister (Principal curator of flies and fleas at the Natural History Museum, who has helped enormously with Dungscape):
The Natural Eye Bursary Award
1st - 10th October
As winner of this generous bursary (with Erica McAlister as my referee), I’m delighted to say that Dungscape will be shown at The Society of Wildlife Artists annual ‘The Natural Eye’ exhibition. This brilliant show is held in The Mall Galleries, London - the highlight of the year for the wildlife artist community.
Joining the dots
Through Dungscape I hope to demonstrate the interconnected and fascinating ecosystem that exists around ‘healthy’ dung. But also the interconnected human ecosystem of co-operation and cumulative knowledge that exist between generations of hobbyists, curators, scientists, farmers and ecologists. All working passionately for biodiversity and nature recovery:
Entomologists, from hobbyists to eminent science professionals, have for centuries collected specimens, sorting and preserving them as a cumulative resource held in historic collections such as Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, and The Natural History Museum. Locked within these (and larger creature) irreplaceable specimens are insights about species evolution, immigration, habitats, anatomy, and more. Scientists continue to develop understanding from them, as sampling and viewing technologies evolve. The labels, holding information about collection location and date, are often “more valuable than the specimens for what they can tell us”.
As collections are digitised, the possibility of sharing reference material between institutions expands.
Conventions, hobbies, and understanding of best practice are changing, so curators tell me that the numbers of personal collections being bequeathed to museums is slowing down. They are therefore even more keen to ensure that what we have (they are national collections) is preserved.
Out in the literal field (or wooded pasture and scrub), rewilding projects such as Knepp have demonstrated spectacular improvements in biodiversity. Free from artificial pesticides and fertilisers, trampled, grazed, rootled and fertilised by old breed cattle and pigs, their sites are a magnet not just for flora and fauna, but for natural scientists keen to study the same. Enter the entomologists, with sieves, jars, and sticks… meddling in and under dungpats, revealing the hidden, finely balanced ecosystems with extraordinary stars. Dung beetles are a keystone species in this system.
But when these ecosystems are interrupted (eg with anti-parasitic drugs used to treat domestic pets and intensively farmed cattle, that persist in their dung and wipe out the dung beetles), they collapse. Quietly.
Related work
I have made a suite of short videos (<3mins) recording my museum visits and sketches, featuring the curators who have helped. Some of these are already available here:
If you know of an institution that might be interested in publishing/platforming this project, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Dungscape will be exhibited at Knepp Wilding Estate (15th August - 6th September 2026) and The Society of Wildlife Artists ‘The Natural Eye’ exhibition (October 2026 in The Mall Galleries, London).
I am seeking to write one/more articles for publication. Other related work (examples below) are ready to exhibit alongside. I would be open to licensing/merchandise using the copyrighted images.
3D high resolution image of a 98 year old fly larva, anyone?!
Artist Statement
Hello from Bristol, UK, where I try to make sense of things by painting and drawing. Click here for more about me and my art practice.
I hope that Dungscape brings you a moment to stop and marvel at the ecosystem that functions around a healthy dungpat. Free from the chemical pesticides (eg avermectins) and inorganic fertilisers that are characteristic of contemporary intensive farming practice, Knepp and other wilded landscapes graze native breed cattle, providing fertile ground for keystone species (eg dung beetles), and a rich assortment of interdependent creatures. These have evolved to work together to naturally manage harmful parasites, and to precipitate the absorption of dung back into the soil.
Acknowledgements
This project would not have been possible without the help of the entomologists and curators who have given me advice on which species would be on a dungpat, where, and doing what.
They have been extremely generous with time and access to reference material, including the collections in their care (titles at time of writing)
Ray Barnett - Senior Vice President of the British Entomological & Natural History Society
Lia Brazier - Creative Director - Knepp Estate
Gavin Broad - Principal Curator in Charge, Insects (specialism hymenoptera) at the Natural History Museum, London; Vice-President (president-elect) of The International Society of Hymenopterists and the British Entomological & Natural History Society
Miranda Lowe - Principal Curator and museum scientist at the Natural History Museum, London
Erica McAlister - Principal Curator for Diptera and Siphonaptera, Natural History Museum, London
Nick Pope - volunteer natural sciences curator at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
Rhian Rowson - Natural Sciences Curator at Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives
Chris Wallbank - Artist and Society of Wildlife Artists bursary scheme liaison
I am also very grateful to the following entities for kindly providing invaluable access and help:
References
Digger wasps are incredible creatures. I wanted to find a photo of one carrying a fly, and the best one came with a moving story: This fantastic photo was taken by Kieran Metcalfe, who died in July 2025. The image here links to his website, where I recommend reading his notes on how he captured these fascinating creatures in action. Kieran’s photography can be licensed for use via his website. Proceeds to The Christie Charity.
Geotrupes stercorarius with Creative commons licence - photo by Andrea Massagli
Peter Skidmore - “Insects of the British Cow-Dung Community” (click here to access on archive.org)
Isabella Tree - “Wilding” (also available as an audiobook narrated by the author, which I listened to while painting)
Erica McAlister - “Metamorphosis - How insects are changing our world”
Draw Wing - website on insect identification by wing details
Ryan Greaves - Purple Emperor photo
Neil Hulme - hornet robber fly photos, Purple emperor photos
Mark Hulme - Purple Emperors in flight
