John W. Taylor's fascination with birds and art began in his fourth grade classroom, where his teacher formed a Junior Audubon Society Club. His art centers around his love for birds and for the natural environment, especially the marshes, waterways and wildlife of the Chesapeake Bay.

Mr. Taylor has received commissions from the National Geographic Society and the National Wildlife Federation and has done illustrations for various state conservation magazines. He designed Maryland's first deer and trout stamps and was selected as the artist for the first Maryland Waterfowl Stamp in 1974. He also won the Maryland Duck Stamp contest in 1979 and the Florida Duck Stamp contest in 1984. Mr. Taylor subsequently designed Maryland's series of five non-game conservation stamps. His work has been exhibited at galleries and in wildlife art shows, mainly on the East Coast. In addition to his free-lance career as an artist, Mr. Taylor served for six years as the editor/artist for the State of Maryland's monthly wildlife publication, The Maryland Conservationist.

In 1994 a book of Mr. Taylor's paintings, with a text adapted from his field diaries, was published by John Hopkins Press. Entitled The Birds of Chesapeake Bay, it reproduced 40 full-page, full-color works. A second book was published in 1998: Chesapeake Spring, also based on Mr. Taylor's field diaries, features 68 full-color paintings depicting not only birds but many forms of wildlife on the Chesapeake Bay.