Szabolcs Kókay

Szabolcs Kókay is an illustrator, wildlife artist and nature painter.

Life

He was born on February 18, 1976, in Budapest, Hungary. He has drawn all his life and became interested in nature as a small child. He began drawing animals 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. 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' annual exhibition in London, and at the Birds in Art exhibition of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum.

2000- BirdLife Hungary's magazine identification section
2001-2006 poster series of the protected birds of Hungary
2003 A Birders' Guide to the Behaviour of European and North American Birds
2004 Woodpeckers of Europe
2004 The birds of the Hortobágy
2005 La nature sous son toit
2006 Birding in Eastern Europe
2006 Guide des curieux de nature en ville
2006 Birding in Eastern Europe
2008 Poisons et venins dans la nature
2009 Guide du pisteur débutant, Reconnaitre les traces et les empreintes d'animaux sauvages
2009 Birds of Borneo