The artist Julian Friers was born in 1956 in Bangor, Northern Ireland and is widely acknowledged as one of Europe’s finest wildlife painters. Julian has been involved with RSPB, BTO, IWC, WWT and other international conservation groups.  He has exhibited in group shows, alongside the world’s most important wildlife artists, in the natural history museums of London and Bonn as well as projects in the Netherlands and America.

In 1996 he embarked on a major commission for the International Foundation for the Conservation and Development of Wildlife, a group centred in the middle east. The project was entitled ‘Gifts from the Desert’ and on completion in 1999 the original artwork went on tour internationally starting at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington - The Library of Congress - The Mall Galleries London and finally The Burj Al Arab in Dubal, at the request of Sheik Mohamed Al Maktoom. Julian was elected President of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts in 2009, a position he held for three years.

Selected Collections

Sheik Mohamed Al Maktoom, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wisconsin

Library of Congress Washington, British Library, London

RUA Diploma Collection, Royal collections in Dubai, Morocco and Saudi Arabia

National Self-Portrait Collection, Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz, The House of Saud