Young Cornish artist helps marine conservation with hand-drawn cards

An 11-year-old boy from Newquay has turned his passion for art into a charity fundraising enterprise.

Harry has been drawing and painting his own greeting cards and selling them at a beach shop at Crantock.

He has already raised more than £1,000 for the Marine Conservation Society with his designs, including images of spider crabs, tropical fish and lobsters.

Harry said: “I would like to raise as much as we need to save the ocean. We need the ocean for so many things and we’re destroying it.”

Harry has received messages of support from broadcaster and conservationist Sir David Attenborough and TV naturalist Steve Backshall, and is keen to spread the conservation message.

“I just think even picking up the tiniest bit of plastic you find on a beach – you could have just saved a fish’s life,” he said.

Harry says his inspiration came from his namesake, the titular character in the children’s book series “Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs”.

His mum Sarah is considering creating a website for her son’s artistic endeavours.

She said: “I just couldn’t be prouder, I just think he’s awesome.

“I just love the way kids now are so passionate and so informed.

“I don’t think I knew half as much as he knows at his age.”