Shrewsbury Doodle Boy creates artwork to mark Darwin voyage

A teenage illustrator known as The Doodle Boy has created a piece of art in honour of Charles Darwin.

Joe Whale, 13, drew a doodle featuring plants, coral and animals next to a statue of the famous naturalist outside Shrewsbury library on Friday.

The 8ft x 5ft (2.4m x 1.5m) canvas was commissioned by naturalists organising a conservation voyage following in Darwin's footsteps.

"Because I was born in Shrewsbury [I] know quite a bit about him," said Joe.

Creating the artwork was "really fun", he added, and helped him become more familiar with Darwin's work.

Shropshire-born Darwin set sail in December 1831 on a five-year journey that shaped his theories on evolution

Darwin200 is a modern-day reprisal, which will take conservationists from Plymouth on Dutch tall ship Oosterschelde to 32 ports in four continents.

The journey will span 40,000 nautical miles, with 200 young environmental researchers aged between 18 and 25 on board for a week at a time.

Supported by a crew, they will visit locations such as the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador to survey coral health, sea-birds and marine life.

As a child, Darwin was educated in a school previously sited in the Grade I listed Shrewsbury library.

His great great grandson Felix Padel, who visited from Pembrokeshire to watch the artwork's creation, said the voyage was "very exciting" and "a wonderful idea".

"He's been an inspiring figure all my life", the anthropologist said of his relative. "I grew up on stories about the Beagle voyage and the things that happened.

"Darwin went as a very humble lad of 22… what he understood, his open mindedness really there, changed the world."

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