Editorial – Wildlife Art in Africa

Wildlife is celebrated in art, artefacts and curios in all of Africa. Even as works of the Masters are mass produced across the world, stunningly original art portraying African wildlife and wilderness is done with passion, patience and perseverance as exemplified by the artists featured in this edition celebrating wildlife art in Africa.

This eclectic selection commences with meet our artist and conservationist Dao Van Hoang. In addition to his graceful interview with your editor, Hoang painted 2 gems for the ACT; a resplendent Prince Ruspoli’s turaco and the Grevy’s zebra foal.

Lucas Borghesio explains the rationale to the tag of Africa’s charismatic birds given to the turaco and Anne-Marie Gordon writes about the foal of one of the rarest equids on Earth.

Allison Nicholls is an artist inspired by Africa. She not only painted the meaningful Man’s Best Friend? for this edition, but also writes about the steep decline in African wild dog populations across its range.

Sofiya Sukhova has painted the walia ibex for the ACT from the joy of viewing the majestic ram on a high cliff in the Simiens in Ethiopia, and gives some salient aspects of the species.

Quinton Mojaki, an 11th grade student from Soweto had sketched Lion Man for us, thanks to the initiative taken by Radhika Perrot.

Gillain Condy, a renowned botanical artist, has written a beautiful piece on the baobabs of Africa, in addition to illustrating these beauties that embellish Madagascar’s landscape.

Once again, the largesse of Ludwig Siege in sharing his beautiful bird photos is appreciated.

Happy wildlife watching and reading! We thank our aforesaid artists and authors for being with us on this journey to showcase wildlife art in Africa. We urge you to consider purchasing art work from these artists who gave their labor of love in putting together this edition. The links to their websites are herewith.

The next issue is due August 2017 and is planned as a special issue on the endangered birds of Africa. As always, we look forward to your contributions.

Sincerely,

Murali Pai
Editor                                                                                                                                                   

Israel Bionyi
Assistant Editor