Meet the wildlife artist | Bumble-Bees Art and Crafts

Environmentally-friendly products in reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging:

Nature artwork:
Original paintings and embroideries
Giclée prints

Greeting cards

100% natural, biodegradable cotton clothes
with a conservation message:
Children's t-shirts and one-piece suits
Adult's t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies

Creative courses

Wildlife art, by Auntie Betty Illustration, to help raise conservation awareness for endangered species.

Shop here..

Courses and Classes

Meet the artist

Donate to the South Island Wildlife Hospital

I am proud to support the South Island Wildlife Hospital charity. They treat and rehabilitate local (often endangered) wildlife and is entirely staffed by volunteers. The hospital is completely dependent on donations.

The Wildlife Artist

Bumble-Bees Art and Crafts sells original artwork, prints, embroideries and other merchandise by wildlife artist, Betty Busby, of 'Auntie Betty Illustration'.

Betty is fascinated by New Zealand's unique wildlife and loves the beautiful, rich colours of native creatures and plants.

She is passionate about creating wildlife artwork of endangered and rare species from around the world, especially lesser known species which need more publicity.

She constantly creates new artworks for Bumble-Bees Art and Crafts, but is also available for wildlife art commissions. She specialises in watercolour, coloured pencil and embroidered portraits. You can contact her here: Contact

She loves tutoring people with learning disabilities, and teaches adults and children cognitive drawing, watercolour painting and embroidery classes. She also writes a monthly blog about her illustration journey.

Betty also sells some of her work on print-on-demand platforms:
Redbubble
Zazzle
Society6

Artist and lover of wildlife

Betty's Inspiration

'Nature is fascinating, especially rare and endangered plants and animals.

As a child, my dream pet was a komodo dragon - partly because I love reptiles and thought that dragons had smiley faces. Besides, I could picture the faces of the tough kids at school when they saw the pet I had in tow!

Growing up in southern Africa (surrounded by beautiful plants, magnificent scenery and unusual creatures like Aardvark and weaver birds) created a strong desire to draw and paint the natural world around me. This desire has grown even stronger during my life in New Zealand, as the native wildlife here is so unique and rare.

Gerald Durrell's books inspired a passion to increase awareness of the plight of endangered species around the world. I hope to paint as many endangered species of plants and animals as I can, so I photograph as much as I can locally. I am grateful to collaborate with generous, talented photographers from around the world, including New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and Germany, who provide good quality source material on which I base my paintings.'

Children's Quirky Creatures Illustrations

'Children's illustration has given me the opportunity to broaden my artwork horizons, by creating quirky, humorous and action-filled illustrations of animals and humans.'

Quirky Creatures Illustrations