Photograph: Katherine Lilly

Ken Lilly was born and brought up in Kent but spent much of his childhood in Suffolk, where his maternal grandfather was a farm bailiff. This is where his love of the countryside and fascination with nature was fostered.

He attended Sidcup Art College and won a scholarship to study in London but instead chose to work in advertising while continuing to paint in his own time. During that period, he built sufficient demand for his wildlife painting to make the risky decision in 1964 to become a freelance illustrator.

With a wife and three young children to support, it must have been a difficult decision. All we know for certain is that he no longer wanted to be on the inside of the advertising world....

In 1975, the family moved from Kent to the Axe Valley in East Devon, where he lived for the rest of his life.