On Wednesday 15th July I will be giving an illustrated talk about my travels in Botswana at Marwell Wildlife Park, Hampshire. This will be similar to the talk I gave at Nature in Art back in February. Each year Marwell Zoo chooses a different conservation project and dedicates all its efforts to raise money for that cause. This year it has the SPRINT Cheetah Campaign and a goal of £225,000 to reach for various projects in Zimbabwe, Northern Kenya, Niger as well as a new home for the zoos own Cheetahs. With only 10,000 of these beautiful cats left in the wild it is critical that every effort is made to halt the decline in numbers. I will be joining fellow wildlife artist, Pip Mc Garry, who will be giving a painting demonstration prior to my talk. Other artists from the Art society have donated prints to be sold on the evening. We hope that the event will be well attended and plenty of money will be raised to help this great conservation project. Cheetahs are my favourite big cat and there is something so thrilling about watching them in the wild, For a start they are very hard to spot in their favoured hunting ground of vast, grassy savannah. I took this photo at Nxai Pan on the edge of the Makgadikgadi salt pans in Botswana as the sun was beginning to set. http://www.marwell.org.uk/ for more information.
