Tim Barritt

© Tim Barritt

I really don’t remember a time when I didn’t draw. Birds are a passion I have always had, my first book, at the age of five, was a Collins Book British Birds, the pictures were all drawings and I would spend hours making copies! Each bird identification was accompanied by a map showing where they were in the summer and winter and their migration routes, I was fascinated. Maps were a way to discover the world, so when I finished college, the opportunity to become a cartographer was a dream first job!

This was before the time of photocopiers, so if you needed a copy of a map then drawing was the way.
The drawing office where I worked soon came under great pressure to step up production of Civil Engineering drawings this was something I had studied at college and it was a natural progression which I soon leaned to enjoy. I was very fortunate with the Engineers for whom I was working and after several years, was given an unexpected challenge.

Having completed a set of complex drawings, I was asked to go and supervise the construction of the project!!

So started forty years of construction engineering. After retirement I was able to devote more time for my passion for drawing, birds are still my favoured subject but I also draw other wildlife.

Oil based coloured pencils have been a great discovery, and I try to spend a part of each day drawing, in between all the many other pleasures of being retired.