about me

I am privileged to be among the few recognized wildlife artists from the Caribbean.  I have opened up new horizons beyond the Caribbean, having relocated to Nairobi, Kenya, from 2014 to 2019, followed by a posting to Panama City, Panama, as I continue my professional career with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

I was born in Toronto, Canada, the eldest of three children, to a St. Lucian father and Jamaican mother.  From the age of five, I grew up on the beautiful island of Saint Lucia, one of the ‘gems’ of the Eastern Caribbean.  I always had a knack for drawing, an interest cultivated through my secondary school years, where I was tutored in art by Luigi St. Omer, son of famed St. Lucian artist, the late Sir Dustan St. Omer.  Following school, I went on to work with the St. Lucia Forestry Division and have remained in the environmental field in my professional career.  It was from my early days with the Forestry Department (mid-1980s) that my love for wildlife and environmental art became inseparable from my career (read more under my professional profile).

I have worked primarily in watercolour and acrylic, having more recently switched to oils.  I have been known for my realistic interpretations of Caribbean flora and fauna. While in East Africa, I expanded my creative reach into the vast and spectacular African landscapes, drawing inspiration from wildlife artists such as Robert Bateman, Don Eckelberry, and John James Audubon, as well as impressionists Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh.  Now in Panama, back in a tropical rainforest environment, I look forward to ‘new creations from new inspirations’ capturing some of the country’s dazzling variety of wildlife and forestscapes…”¡me gusta!”

I am an Associate Member of Artists for Conservation, the world’s leading artist group supporting the environment. See my profile here.

My art collective ‘Chris Cox Originals’ includes a range of products inspired by my art, such as limited edition prints, t-shirts and other collectibles.

studioworks

Back in St. Lucia, my studio is at home, Seascape Villa, located on the breezy LaToc hillside, overlooking the magnificent and picturesque Castries Harbour and Vigie Peninsula, northward to Pigeon Island and the French island of Martinique.  Between 2014 and 2019, we lived in beautiful Kenya; my studio no longer had the commanding view of the ocean…it was a garden view featuring a large heliconia clump that beautiful sunbirds frequented (heliconias are primarily native to the Americas and are visited by hummingbirds; in Africa, the sunbirds seem to have adapted to them quite well).  In May 2019, we relocated with my job to Panama, a tropical paradise straddling the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean…back again in a familiar neck of the woods, so to speak, but now in Spanish! 

Over the years, much of my work has been in acrylic and watercolour, although I have more recently been working in oils. My compositions are often created from a melee of mental impressions; the fleeting shimmer of a hummingbird at a heliconia set against the sunlit-dappled forest understorey, the small detail in the gleam of moisture on the tips of a bromeliad perched on a lichen-covered ancient branch, or the play of afternoon sunlight on the back of a bird on wing. 

I use a collection of field notes, sketches, photos and reference material to lend realism to the subjects and the environment within which they live.  Click on the image to open the scrapbook!

 

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All about, and creating Chris Cox Originals….watch!!

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