Read this Wildlife Art Journal article

One of my greatest experiences of the last few days is that I discovered a woolly mammoth bone near my favorite river, the Wisla. I live in the countryside of Poland, and work as a cultural animator in a small town called Proszowice. My dream is to become a book illustrator and make pictures for natural history volumes about birds and animals from all over the world.  Another desire is to meet my idol, the British naturalist David Attenborough. I would love to tell him about the mammoth bone.

For now, while my life is intertwined with nature and animals, I spend my free time observing birds—in my mind the most beautiful creatures on earth.  It’s not surprising that birds are the inspiration for my paintings. I’m particularly fancy of kingfishers, which are really interesting. I remember when I first saw this small bird. I took my sketchbook out and started drawing it, hoping it would remain in front of me longer than the blink of an eye. I remember thinking how unusual these birds really are.

I spent most of my life growing up in a city in northern Poland, just across the sea, called Gdynia. But I decided to move to the south to the countryside where you can feel wildness.  I live in a country that is vaguely familiar to people in North America and off the beaten path of many tourists but would perhaps surprise them at how wild it remains. In Poland, nature...