Ray Ching b. 1939

Born in 1939 in Wellington, Ray Ching is renowned as New Zealand's leading contemporary bird painter.  Ching began exhiting his bird paintings in the 1960's.  His first exhibtion , 'Thirty Birds', in 1968 was a sell-out, attracting the attention of Sir William Collins of Collins Publishing.  He invited Ching to the UK to produce a book of his bird paintings, however upon Ching's arrival, he came in contact  with the publishers of The Reader's Digest.  Along with Collins Publishing,  they intended to produce a major book on the birds of Britain.  As a result , Ching was commissioned to paint 230 full-colour studies and the Reader's Digest Book of British Birds was published in 1969.  This book became the world's most successful and biggest selling ornithological publication.

Ching is represented in New Zealand with work in The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatū, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington  and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

Books documenting his paintings include: The Readers Digest Book of British Birds, 1969, The Bird Paintings, 1978, Studies & sketches of a Bird Painter, 1981, The Art of Raymond Ching, 1981, Wild Portraits, 1988, Ray Harris Ching, Journey of an Artist, 1990, Voice from the Wilderness 1994.

In 2010 Ching ventured into the genre of graphic novels with the first publication by David Bateman Publishing, ‘Aesop’s Kiwi Fables - Painting Ray Ching’.  This publication accompanied the first of two exhibitions at ARTIS Gallery, Auckland, NZ (2010, and 2012). In 2014, Dawn Chorus was published (also by Bateman Publishing) and accompanied another two further exhibitions at ARTIS in 2014 and 2015.

‘Aesop’s Outback Fables’ was published in 2018 by Artis Gallery, concurrent with his exhibition of the same year. The book ‘Fabled Lands’, was launched simultaneously with an exhibition across ARTIS and Jonathan Grant Gallery in October 2021.  His latest book ‘The Huia & Our Tears’ was published in 2024, along with an exhibition at ARTIS in October that year.

In 2012 Ching was commissioned by Sir David Attenborough to paint a large oil on canvas, which was used to illustrate the cover of Attenborough’s book, Drawn from Paradise.