This is Juan Varela

Juan Varela (Madrid, Spain, 1950) is a biologist and Wildlife Artist. Born in Madrid where he studied Biology and obtained a master’s degree in the song of his studies on seabird behavior. Until 1980 he worked on seabird research in gull colonies off the African north coast. At the same time, he did scientific illustration for plants magazines and encyclopedias. He was the main illustrator of the Spanish without difficulty known birds film maker and writer Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente.

In 1986, Varela was appointed as Director of the Spanish Ornithological Society a publish that he occupied until 1990 next he started to dedicate more time to art, eventually making of this a full-time job. He was co-founder of the Mediterranean seabird attachment that for many years contributed to the conservation of biodiversity of the Mediterranean basin. As an active Council supporter he participated in the supervision of international symposium and congress in Spain, Italy and Tunisia.

In 1992 he started to cooperate next the Artist for Nature Foundation, a Dutch-based group vigorous in nature conservation through art, participating in several projects in every other countries (i.e. Peru, Ecuador, Spain, Alaska, Portugal, Israel, etc.). He is the recognized representative of ANF in Spain. He has published 20 books, amongst them 2 identification showground guides on birds and mammals and a students’ manual upon nature drawing. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums of UK, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal and USA, and his sham was selected by the judges of the Birds in Art show (Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin). Varela is considered by many one of the founders of the ahead of its time Wildlife Art in Spain and he has contributed to its increase with his teaching. A good part of his paintings are produced on site, through deal with observation of animals in their environment, but the studio comport yourself is along with based upon field sketches.