IMAGINE how invigorating it feels to fulfil a dream career that helps support important charities at the same time. But it's all in a day's work for busy mum Karen Phillips, whose artwork backs local and national wildlife projects throughout the year.

Based in a studio in Plumley, near Knutsford, the proactive artist has established strong ties with neighbouring Lower Moss Wood Wildlife Hospital and this fruitful relationship has led to great things for both parties.

Lower Moss Wood is a nature reserve in Ollerton which cares for and rehabilitates injured wild animals.

As resident artist, Karen gets much of her inspiration from studying these animals and in turn, the charity benefits by selling her work.

An exclusive series of open edition prints are available called The Lower Moss Wood Collection and a high percentage of the proceeds automatically go to the charity.

"It's my local charity so I've been aware of fundraising for quite some time and I've always been keen to show my support," explained Karen.

"A lot of these animals can't be released back into the wild so I like to think my art is helping them."

Some of Karen's original artwork was successfully auctioned by the NSPCC at its 2006 Snowflake Ball and the artist is currently working in conjunction with the Born Free Foundation.

"Born Free is such an important charity which does things like relocating giraffes and rescuing lions from circuses, and I have been commissioned to do a piece on the endangered Ethiopian wolves," she said.

"They are beautiful creatures who are actually closer to extinction than the giant panda so it is great to be working with them on this."

Karen is so enthusiastic about her drawings because she has a genuine concern that many creatures could become extinct in our lifetime, and raising awareness is an important part of her work.

She predominately chooses to work in graphite pencil because she believes the most spectacular results can be obtained in the absence of colour.

"There are only a handful of graphite artists in the area and I'm certainly one of the only women," she confessed.

"I also get a kick out of being able to stop drawing when I want to and quickly pick it up again without the need for any consideration of drying times, cleaning of brushes and changes of clothes.

"By spending a minimum amount of time on these things I can spend more time creating the artwork."

This is a big advantage for the 34-year-old, who lives and works from her mid Cheshire studio and has to juggle her time and energy between her artwork commitments and her family.

Karen prefers working with graphite because this gives her the freedom to accentuate tones, shades and highlights.

By doing this, she can focus on the close details of the animal such as the feathers, fur, eyes and skin blemishes to create something which is sharp, striking and dramatic.

She describes her work as an exploration of existing beauty in the natural world from a different angle and the aim is to immediately grab the viewer's attention.

"I want the viewer's eye to be drawn to the stars of the piece and how they are behaving within the story being told," she said.

"The animal is already beautiful but I try to capture that in a way that's sympathetic, uplifting, positive and realistic for people to enjoy in their homes."

But graphite work doesn't come without its fair share of challenges and the most considerable one is that there is nowhere to hide.

If Karen makes a mistake it is often too late to change it and it is the honesty of graphite that makes her raise her game with each new piece.

She added: "Elephants are the hardest to draw because of the creases and folds in their skin.

"It's difficult to do them justice but it's also important as everyone finds a connection with elephants because they are very social creatures with a gentle nature."

Largely self-taught, Karen's only formal art training was at GCSE level where she experimented with a variety of different media before finding her real passion for graphite pencil drawing.

She now has more than 15 years' experience as a professional wildlife artist and is particularly proud that no computers are used at any stage to create or enhance her work.

In fact the artist often spends hour after hour observing wildlife so it could be argued that animals themselves are the most important tool of her trade!

Karen's work can now be found all over the world in the UK and across Europe, USA and Australia, and is rapidly growing in both popularity and critical acclaim.

She also hopes to showcase her work for the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art in Liverpool and the Society of Wildlife Artists in London later this year.

n For more information, call 01606 48906 or log on to www.karenphillipswildlife.com