Szabolcs Kókay is an

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

, wildlife artist and

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Life

He was born on February 18, 1976, in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. He has drawn all his life and became interested in nature as a small child. He began drawing

animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ...

more seriously only at the age of twenty. Between 1996 and 2001, he worked in nature conservation, first in BirdLife Hungary, then on the Washington Convention (

CITES CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...

). In 2001, he became a full-time wildlife artist and illustrator. He has no formal art training. He worked with acrylics in the early years, but around 2005 he changed to watercolours, gouache and oils. He uses watercolours for looser styled paintings, for field studies and combined with gouache for illustration work. His bigger, more detailed, paintings are done in oils. He regularly works in the field to have first-hand references. He regularly takes part in international exhibitions and competition. He has been an exhibitor at the

Society of Wildlife Artists The Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) is a British organisation for artists who paint or draw wildlife. It was founded in 1964. Its founder president was Sir Peter Scott, the current president of the society is British artist Harriet Mead. The s ...

' annual exhibition in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and at the Birds in Art exhibition of the

Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum is located in Wausau, Wisconsin. It is best known for its annual "Birds in Art" exhibition, which exhibits contemporary artistic representations of birds. The annual exhibition has been held beginning the week a ...

Main achievements

*2000, '' British Birds'' "Bird Illustrator of the Year" PJC Award *2001, 2002: ''British Birds'' "Bird Illustrator of the Year" 3rd place *2008: Birdwatch Artist of the Year

Published works

*2000- BirdLife Hungary's magazine ('Madártávlat') identification section *2001-2006 poster series of the protected birds of Hungary (published by the Ministry for the Environment) *2003 A Birders' Guide to the Behaviour of

European European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...

and North American Birds (szerző: Michl Gábor) *2004 Woodpeckers of Europe (author: Gerard Gorman) *2004 The birds of the

Hortobágy Hortobágy is a village in Hajdú-Bihar County in eastern Hungary. It lies on the banks of the river, which is crossed at Hortobágy by the Nine-arched Bridge, one of the principal man-made monuments of the Hortobágy National Park. The park ...

(editor: Ecsedi Zoltán) *2005 La nature sous son toit (author: Jean Francois Noblet) *2006 Birding in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

(author: Gerard Gorman) *2006 Guide des curieux de nature en ville (author: Vincent Albouy) *2006 Birding in Eastern Europe (author: Gerard Gorman) *2008 Poisons et venins dans la nature (author: Denis Richard) *2009 Guide du pisteur débutant, Reconnaitre les traces et les empreintes d'animaux sauvages (author: Vincent Albouy) *2009 Birds of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

(author: Susan Myers)

Gallery

File:Falco peregrinus.vándorsólyom.jpg, Peregrine on Saint Stephen's Cathedral in Budapest (acrylic on paper) File:Ardeola ralloides.üstökösgém.jpg, Squacco heron (watercolour on paper) File:Charadrii.partimadarak.jpg, We are all young /juvenile shorebirds (oil on canvasboard) he won the Birdwatch Artist of the Year prize with this painting File:Carcharhinus longimanus.óceáni fehérfoltú cápa.jpg, Oceanic white-tipped shark (watercolour and gouache on paper) File:Serpentes.kígyók.jpg, South-East Asian snakes (watercolour and gouache on paper) File:Insectum.rovarok.jpg, Insects of bat diet (watercolour and gouache on paper) File:Rhinolophus hipposideros.Kis patkósdenevér.jpg, Lesser horseshoe bat (gouache on paper) File: Newborn baby.jpg, Newborn baby (watercolour and gouache on paper)

References

Szabolcs Kókay’s website

External links

From Birding.hu personal details
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kokay, Szabolcs 20th-century Hungarian illustrators 21st-century Hungarian illustrators 20th-century Hungarian painters 21st-century Hungarian painters Hungarian painters of animals 1976 births Living people Artists from Budapest Bird artists Wildlife artists