Animal and Bird Prints

An animal print behaves differently from every other subject in this shop, and the reason is the face. A leaf does not look back at you. Thirty of the thirty-three paintings here are nursery and kids' room pieces built around an animal drawn as a character rather than as a specimen — a silly goose, a mother duck, Beatrix Potter rabbits in pink gingham rooms, mallard ducks for a hunting nursery, a dragon, a safari trio, and whales, turtles, jellyfish and dolphins in navy and soft blue. They have expressions. That is why they end up in children's rooms.

The other three are specimens rather than characters: two leopards painted in blush pink, and a plate of Mediterranean sardines that is really a dining room picture which wandered in. Worth knowing before you shop the page, because the two halves do not hang together.

Fourteen of the thirty-three take a child's name painted into the artwork before it goes to print. Nine are also sold as a digital download if you would rather print it yourself, from about CA$13. The rest print to order on heavy matte paper and ship unframed in seven sizes, 5x7 in (12.7 x 17.8 cm) to 16x20 in (40.6 x 50.8 cm) — singles from about CA$14, pairs about CA$26, sets of three about CA$38, sets of four about CA$44, and the ocean sets of six about CA$55.

Will an animal print outlast the nursery?

The character ones have a better chance than a pastel rainbow does, because a named character is harder to retire than a pattern is. A rabbit painted in the storybook register reads as an illustration rather than as baby decor, so it survives a repaint and a change of bed. The pieces that age fastest are the ones carrying a name in a nursery script — not because the name stops being true, but because the lettering dates. If you want one piece to stay up for a decade, choose it without the name and put the name on something else.

Why are so many of these sold in sets of four and six?

Because a cast needs more than two members. The ocean sets work as six different creatures, so the wall says there is a world in there. That is the opposite of how a botanical set of six works, where the pleasure is six variations on one stem. If you are mixing animals with foliage, keep them on separate walls: a set of six animals and a set of three eucalyptus sprigs in one sightline read as two unfinished ideas rather than one arrangement.

Should the animal match the room or the child?

The child, every time. Schemes get repainted and the animal does not stop being a dragon. The one thing I would let the room decide is colour strength. The ocean work is navy and will anchor a pale room; the cottagecore geese and rabbits sit in pink, cream and gingham and want a soft wall behind them; the blush leopards are the loudest things on the page and need space either side.

More ways in: nursery and kids room art for the whole room, personalised name prints if the name matters most, and botanical prints for the leaf-and-stem sets these often hang beside.