One of Ecologist Courtenay Holden’s greetings cards designs
As well as qualifications in biosciences, Courtenay also has an arts degree and has exhibited paintings in New Zealand, France and England. In her spare time, she photographs or collects interesting invertebrate specimens to draw, and produces artwork from these as well as mammals and birds observed in the field. These artworks are digitised and produced as limited edition greeting cards.
Proceeds from the card sales allow Courtenay to volunteer her spare time on a range of wildlife-related projects including independent research, bat conservation, and hazel dormouse reintroduction and monitoring groups. Similarly, the majority of the organisations that stock the greetings cards focus on research, education, conservation and habitat protection or creation programmes. Sales of Courtenay’s cards are therefore benefiting wildlife and helping make some of Britain’s more secretive or hard-to-spot species more accessible to everyone.
Courtenay is working on new beetle and bird designs for 2016, and her range of cards can be bought through Wildlife Trust and RSPB visitor shops around Britain, Butterfly Conservation and Buglife online shops, several National Park and WWT reserve visitor centres around Britain, and online here. Courtenay’s latest foil Christmas card designs are also available now.
Examples of Ecologist Courtenay Holden’s Christmas card designs (the foil is applied on top of these designs)