David Shepherd - Artist & Conservationist

David Shepherd was born in Hendon, London, England. As a child he lived in Totteridge, North London and he won a children's painting competition in a magazine called Nursery World when he was eight years old. He then attended Stowe School in Buckinghamshire.

His early career was, to quote his own words, "a series of disasters". After failing to be a game warden in Africa, he turned to his second choice, painting - and was promptly turned down as "not worth training" by the first art school that he tried to enter. They said he had "no talent".

David owes all his subsequent success to the man who trained him, Robin Goodwin, also to the Royal Air Force who flew him all over the world in order to paint aircraft pictures for them and also commissioned his very first elephant painting.

Neal Brown said in frieze magazine,

"David Shepherd is one of the most financially rewarded painters in the UK, but his critical status is less than negligible. Although considered the supreme master of Bad Art, Shepherd has brought pleasure to millions, as seen on the many table mats, posters and commemorative plates that bear his work."

David Gower said,

"There is a sense of the atmosphere of the African bush that emanates from all his work."

He became interested in conservation during an early expedition into the African bush, where he discovered a poisoned water hole with a large number of dead zebra. He has since become an outspoken world-known campaigner, and devotes much of his time to this.

• He is also a steam railway enthusiast, but said in a letter to the UK Railway Magazine,
  

  "you can always build another steam loco but you can't build another tiger."

• One of his best known paintings is called Tiger in The Sun, painted in 1977.
• He is well known for his paintings of elephants.
• He is the founder of the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation.

Elephant Art Print
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Framed   Mounted

The Ivory Is Theirs Art Print
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Framed   Mounted

"I feel immensely proud of the success this year's Wildlife Artist of the Year Competition. It is so rewarding that we have not only offered a platform to so many artists from around the world to showcase their work but through their generosity it has raised significant funds to save critically endangered wildlife and helped spread awareness of the desperate plight of wildlife.

Together, we are fulfilling the ART of CONSERVATION and are making a real difference - thank you."

David Shepherd CBE

Wildlife Artist of the Year Competition

'For Ever And Ever Amen'

A young artist from Zimbabwe was named the 2011 Wildlife Artist of the Year at an awards ceremony in London on Monday 6th June 2011.

David Filer, who has entered the competition every year since it began, was delighted to win. It was a fantastic validation of his work, he said, especially when judged among such inspirational competition.

"I walked into the gallery tonight, looked around at the other work and thought 'I don't stand a chance," said David Filer.

David's beautiful graphite image of an elephant and her calf was a huge hit with the judging panel. Commenting on the winning work fellow judge and water colourist, Hazel Soan summed up the judges views by saying: "The strength and tenderness of the elephants is perfectly epitomized in the press of the graphite. An image of extraordinary edge, a drawing without line, totally superb."

One of his first major fund-raising successes was with the painting 'Tiger Fire' which raised 127,000 for Project Tiger in 1973. In 1984 The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation was set up to focus David's conservation efforts and to increase public awareness and funds for wildlife conservation both in this country and abroad. To date, through David's efforts and the generosity of the Foundation's supporters, over 2.5 million has been raised.

David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

• Training and equipping every forest officer in India's famous Sunderbans Tiger Reserve.


• Uncovering ivory cartels in Zambia, seizing thousands of pounds worth of ivory and arresting poachers.


• Reducing poaching in Russia, allowing Siberian Tigers to increase from 100 to over 400 in the wild.


• Purchasing land next to one of South Africa's National Parks, home to the last 800 surviving mountain zebra, extending the park by over 200%...



• "When the Buying Stops, The Killing Can Too"

  
  Active Conservation Awareness Programme has reached over 40 million homes across Asia and with the support of film idol Jackie Chan has persuaded many to stop consuming wildlife.


• Funding undercover operations of Africa's first cross-border Task Force fighting wildlife smuggling.

David Shepherd with his painting of Elephants in front of Mount Kilimanjaro - Photo: Julian Simmonds

The completed work, titled 'Elephants at Amboseli', was donated by a man who has brought pleasure to millions with his paintings of wildlife, aircraft and locomotives.

In 2009 a rare exhibition of 50 of David Shepherd's paintings was put on at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, headquarters of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, to raise funds for the appeal. The appeal total stands at 1.1million.

Mr Shepherd said: "I'm delighted to be able to help the appeal because I owe so much to the RAF. They commissioned my very first painting of wildlife in 1960 and if it wasn't for them, I might never have turned my hand to painting animals."

At the time I was known for painting aircraft and did a lot of work for the RAF, and they flew me to Nairobi, where the staff had clubbed together for a painting to hang in the mess. They said they didn't want a picture of an aircraft, because they looked at aircraft all day long, and so I painted a rhinoceros chasing a Twin Pioneer aeroplane. "A picture of it appeared in the local papers and people started clamouring for others, so that's when my wildlife painting began."

Mr Shepherd offered to help the Forgotten Heroes appeal during a visit to RAF Coningsby, and after being asked if he might consider putting on an exhibition, generously offered to paint a new picture which could be raffled.

He said: "I feel very strongly about the campaign to build a memorial. I'm ashamed that in this country we don't recognise heroes like these brave airmen, and it's high time we did something about it."

As well as the original painting, which depicts elephants in front of a snow-capped Kilimanjaro, Mr Shepherd also donated 100 limited edition signed prints of another painting, 'F for Freddie Did Not Return', showing a squadron of bombers under attack.

The exhibition of his work, included paintings from his private collection, and cover subjects ranging from wildlife to aircraft with the paintings set amongst the BBMF's Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricanes.

Squadron Leader Tony Iveson, chairman of the Bomber Command Association, said: "This was a marvellous opportunity to obtain a painting by one of the greatest wildlife and aviation artists of our time and a truly generous gesture by David on behalf of the memorial appeal."