Anna Kus Park - Illustrator & Art Teacher
Anna Kus Park got in touch with us to tell us how much she liked the design of our new website. When we discovered that Anna was an artist who loved painting birds we were truly honoured.
We asked her if she would talk to us about her work and were delighted when she also agreed to share with us some of her beautiful illustrations.
Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Anna Kus Park, I’m an illustrator and art teacher. I’m from Poland. I lived in UK for 9 years and for the last two years I’ve been exploring Spain. I love nature, especially birds and plants. I also like to travel, which helps me to learn how diverse our planet is and how fascinating other cultures are.
When did you start making art?
I remember vividly watching my dad painting landscapes, horses and flowers in his makeshift ‘studio’ on our kitchen table when I was a child. I also remember going hundreds of times through my mum’s notebook which had poems by various writers that she had beautifully decorated with pictures and calligraphy. I think these were the kind of things that influenced me a lot and gave me the idea of creating from a very early age.
Your parents sound very creative. Did they encourage you to be creative when you were young?
In Poland I spent a lot of time in the backyard with my friends playing in the garden, climbing trees and playing funny games we invented. I think all that was definitely encouraging my creativity. I always enjoyed observing things around me. I liked to watch people and everything that was surrounding me and later on transferring it onto a piece of paper just as I do now. When I was 7 years old, I started at a music school. Learning to play piano, dancing and singing also strengthened my desire to create.








It seems as though you had a very happy childhood. When did you start painting birds?
I began studying and painting birds in 2012, when my father-in-law asked me if I could draw some illustrations for one of his books. The first three birds I painted were a robin, a kngfisher, and a gannet.
What is it about birds that makes you want to paint them?
Everything! Their amazing variety, uniqueness, colours, accessibility, rituals, singing …
That really resonates with us. We also love that birds are all around and so close to us. How do you get inspiration?
I keep looking. I love to observe what’s surrounding me.
How do you go about painting a bird?
I do a lot of research in books, the internet and of course outside in the wild when possible. When a particular bird catches my eye, I will try to understand it inside out. What I’m looking for is the bird´s character. I do not like to focus only on the scientific visualization when drawing a particular bird; I want to give it a little bit of a personality. When I feel ready, I start studying the birds now on the paper with pencil, inks and watercolours.
I almost always start my drawing with the eye. Because if the eye doesn’t have ‘the right look”, then I don’t feel encouraged to finish it, and normally I’ll start it all over again. But if I have a good flow, and I like the way it looks, I would play with the colours, searching for the right shape of the body and hue of the feathers. When I use only ink pen, I like to concentrate on the details and simplicity of the shape. Another time I might play around with ink, watercolours and crayons, which I blend together almost like I used to do with oil paint. I do like to get all the different shades and unexpected lines and stains.
What else do you like to paint?
Plants and people
Do you have any influences?
Well nature, I guess, but there are lots of artists whose work I admire, like Toulouse-Lautrec, Egon Schiele, Klimt, Mackintosh, Wyspiański, Malczewski, Vermeer and many more. I guess it’s the colours, lines, way of applying paint and details, nuances to which I pay attention and which I am looking for in my pictures.
Also Sir David Attenborough with his wonderful life journey and Charles Darwin are great inspirations to me.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I’m a mother of two small boys so I start my day getting them ready to go to school. After that I’m normally organising my working space, since I can’t work with a mess around. Then I’ll start to work on a project that I’m involved in, if not, researching one.
What advice would you give to other artists who are starting out?
Observe and draw what you like
And finally, what is your favourite British bird?
Difficult to choose only one but the robin, goldcrest and wren will, for sure, be up there.
Great choices! Thank you so much Anna