Original works of art

Blinks is among the best known and most highly regarded of those who painted sporting dogs in the late nineteenth century. His paintings, executed in a highly finished style, often depict sporting dogs in the field, characteristically posed on point or, in case of Foxhounds, running over fields and fences in pursuit of the fox.

Born in Maidstone, his family soon moved to Tenterden where young Blinks went to school. He was sketching by the age of ten, and although he wanted to study art he was, at his father's insistence, apprenticed to a tailor. Although he was to receive no formal training, his keen observation and natural talent soon had him producing paintings of the sporting life with an almost photographic quality.

Blinks worked in both oil and watercolour, although he is certainly best remembered for his oil paintings. He first exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in 1881 and at the Royal British Academy in 1882. He exhibited 29 works at the Royal Academy from 1833 to 1910.