Since 2003, I have visited Antarctica and the Southern Ocean annually working on cruise ships as well as going as a passenger on various ships. In November 2003, four months after my first trip to South Africa I found myself back in Cape Town, this time I was boarding the SA Agulhas to head south to Prince Edward and Marion Island and then onto Antarctica, my first trip of many to this most amazing region of the world. I vividly remember the first Black-browed albatrosses flying by, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I thought I must see more of these birds, many more.
Sea watching from various promontories around Cape Town provided distant views of albatrosses and petrels, but it wasn't until I went out in a boat 30miles south of the Cape that I saw these birds close-up. When I undertook illustrating Handbook to Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands I was very keen to illustrate the six seabird plates. Petrels and shearwaters for me are the most enigmatic birds of the world and I have spent a lot of time in pursuit of them. My Field Guide to The Birds of East Africa, for example, was a project that took five and a half years of continuous work to complete. I have always spent a lot of time painting and drawing mostly focusing on birds. "For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with wildlife and the natural world, spending my early years practicing taxidermy, watching birds, and chasing after insects. He is currently working on the Handbook to the Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands having just completed the Field Guide to Birds of the Horn of Africa. In 1992 Gale won British Bird's 'Bird illustrator of the Year' and 2002 he was named Birdwatch Magazine's 'Bird Artist of the Year'. In recent years he has focussed on oil painting in some of the world's most fragile environments. For the last twenty years he has illustrated a number of field guides to the birds of various regions of the world, travelling from Antarctica and the Southern Oceans to the jungles of Madagascar. Originally from Reading, Gale was educated at Leighton Park School and studied veterinary science at Liverpool University.
See: Opening times for the exhibition and the Museum John Gale & Sons An exhibition of oil paintings from Antarctica and the Southern Ocean by Britain's leading bird illustrator, John Gale. Dissertations & Theses by SPRI students.