Kevin Diggins never met an animal or a fish that he wouldn’t like to paint.

The artist, who has owned a home with his wife, Dawn, in Jim Thorpe for the past 23 years, is displaying some of his works at Skytop Lodge through mid-November.

Diggins love for illustrating began when he was in elementary school.

“I used to doodle a lot during my classes,” he said. “Of course, back then, I didn’t know that illustration and painting would become a passion of mine.”

After graduating from high school, he was commissioned to illustrate at the Franklin Mint and the Pennsylvania Game News periodical.

“That’s when I started to concentrate on wildlife as my subjects. For the mint, I was asked to draw fish, even some very strange looking fish that swim in the waters of Japan. But since illustrating for the Pa. Game News, most of my paintings that I have done are of fish and animals that live here in our state.”

Diggins has a permanent residence in Delaware County and has retired from his job as a groundskeeper from Delaware County Community College.

“Painting is just something you find time to do when you are working and raising a family,” he said. “Now I have more time to create more artwork.”

He paints on Masonite board in oils. His ideas to create representations of animal life come from many hours spent hunting and fishing, as well as reading magazines about outdoor experiences.

“Sometimes I’ll see something in the woods and I decide to paint it,” Diggins said. “One time I saw this big tree that had been chewed down by a beaver, but a bunch of grape vines had grown around the top half, keeping it from falling to the ground. There was no beaver there, but I painted one into the scene and I titled the painting, ‘Huh?’”

He is self-taught, but he studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and was influenced by artists Ned Smith, a self-trained naturalist, and Bob Heintz, who worked for the government as an artist, and wildlife painter Chuck Ripper.

Diggins has had his artwork displayed at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Fairmont Park Memorial Hall and the Peale House in Philadelphia. His other avid interest is photography of outdoor subjects.

“I will take a picture of something I see and then paint it, but I always change something about the scene or the subject to make it original and different,” he said.

His exhibition booking at the Skytop Lodge happened upon the suggestion of his wife, Dawn, whom he calls his “general manager.”

They had visited the lodge, and when observing another artist’s work, Dawn showed pictures of her husband’s paintings from her cellphone and the response by the person in charge of the lodge was, “We gotta have you.”

Diggins was asked if the lodge art gallery exhibition will have his works for presented for sale. He reluctantly said yes.

“I’m closely attached to my work,” he said, “but our basement at home is cluttered with my paintings and Dawn says it’s time we move some out.”

The display will include 20 paintings of trout, turkeys, owls and other wildlife. The sizes range from 24 inches by 32 inches to 30 by 40 inches.

Which painting is his favorite? A blue-billed duck.

“I have him separated from his flock that are flying in the background through a gray sky over the water,” he said.

From start to finish, it takes Diggins about a week or two to finish a piece, depending upon how the process is working.

“Painting helps me relax and escape the real world for a while,” he said, “but sometimes it can be frustrating. I start something, but I walk away from it and if I really don’t like where it’s going, I just paint something else over it.”

From doodling on a piece of paper many years ago until now, when he gets to invite the public to see his talents at the Sky Top Lodge, Diggins is liking where his love for art and painting wildlife have come.

Diggins had a “Meet the Artist” event on Sept. 14 at the lodge and said that he and his wife plan to “pop into the gallery every now and then” while his paintings are on display for the next two months.