Born in New Zealand Ching now spends his time working in studios on opposite sides of the world. Whether in England, Australia or back home he is always yearning to be somewhere else. Perhaps this is why his studios are incomplete haphazard sanctums where no cleaner is allowed. Cluttered with paintings, sketches and articles each studio is also adorned with stacks of cigarette butts and ash piled up in mounds two feet high against the walls. As he paces up and down in meditation Ching raises a cloud of dust that settles in a filmy layer across his latest work propped on an easel, supported by nails that he hammers in to stop the painting moving! When he isn't wandering he works under a 75-watt light bulb while perched uncomfortably on his favorite 18th century chair.
Ching's initial exhibition was held in 1966 at the John Leech Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. "Thirty Birds" set the tone for his later work with highly detailed watercolors executed in dry brush technique. There was intense concentration on the variation of plumage and the colors and patterns inherent in each feather. Although there was no attempt to show the bird in its surroundings there were sometimes exceptions with perhaps a view of a female sparrow (one of his favorite subjects) nesting in a rusty paint can or a small barn owl lying on its back at the base of a tree.
Ching first came to the attention of the wider art world in the 1970's when he began illustrating the first in a series of now classic bird books including "The Bird Paintings" (1978), "The Art of Raymond Ching" (1981) and "Wild Portraits" (1988). Adopting the methods of a scientist Ching was painstaking in his observation. He would go out in the field to study his subjects but was also known for working from dead birds in his studio. A feverish worker he would compulsively paint and draw until he had captured both the essence and the reality of the creature there before him. Immortalised in a series of technically brilliant paintings these photo realistic portraits became wildly popular and inspired an entire generation of wildlife artists.
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