The Avian Art of Anthony Romilio

How do you get from a career in cancer research to painting birds, with a stop along the way to dig up a few dinosaur bones? Just ask 34-year-old, Australian-born Anthony Romilio who has done all the above. This was quite the transformation even for a man passionate about wildlife and fascinated with evolution. He has always loved animals, having grown up on a farm, and has enjoyed doing pencil drawings since he was a child. His combined interests and artistic talent lent a certain inevitability to his becoming the artist he is today.

Anthony's eclectic background included studying at university, where he became a qualified zoologist and biochemist. Work in the field of biochemistry accounts for the year he spent in Sydney doing cancer research, but zoology had its hooks in him and sent him to Canada in search of dinosaurs. He spent a year there with a dinosaur museum, digging up dinosaur bones and bits and pieces. During this time, he was consumed by his interest in the history of animals and evolution. Anthony returned to Australia at the end of his year in Canada, filled with artistic concepts and themes. In his own words:

During all this time of study, research and dinosaur digging, I had been constantly drawing birds. Often pencils although more typically with pen (since jobs usually entailed writing in pen) I would 'doodle' impressive pictures during lunch breaks. Painting was the 'block' for me. As a teenager, art class was a precious time, again drawing in pen and pencil. I completed my first painting as a teenager. The response my art teacher made with regard to my painting convinced me (as a teenager) that I could not and would never be able to paint. It turns out I could paint and I love it. My love of painting is married with my love of birds- they with their cheeky personalities, their fleeting moment spent still in the trees as well as their complex feather arrangement; it is not a simple marriage, rather one that is rich, all encompassing and rewarding. Painting and being able to bring a sense of life to a sheet of paper and for that life to be of a bird is pure delight.

In Australia, Anthony used the knowledge he had gained as a result of the dinosaur digs to determine ways in which history repeats itself, essentially, he says, "predicting evolution." He has made several TV and radio appearances, explaining his theory of what people will look like in the future. He has worked with John Stainton, producer of The Crocodile Hunter, on a project which is yet to be completed. He has also done cartoon-type illustrations for a children's book. Where was all this leading?

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