I first began painting as a hobby; it turned into something more when I realised I could use my work to raise funds for animal charities. Whilst conservation of a species is enormously important; I have always also felt a strong desire to help the individual animal. When you hear that every twenty six minutes an African elephant is poached for its tusks; it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that each one of those deaths is the loss of a magnificent animal.

I think this is what has influenced my style of painting. So rather than see a herd of zebra on the plains, I want the viewer to connect with an individual animal; to get a sense of its character and its soul; a portrait of the animal.

When one of my paintings hangs on someone’s wall; I want them to have the feeling that the animal is there in the room with them and to really connect with the individual and experience just a little of the beauty of nature; and therefore, maybe, want to protect it.

‘No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.’ David Attenborough