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Conservation plays a huge role in Richard's work and he is always delighted to help his two chosen charities the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation and the Born Free Foundation which he has been a member of since 1997. Within the last three years Richard has been specializing in painting and drawing life-size pictures from tigers, horses, lions and now to his largest painting do date, a life-size oil painting of an African Bull Elephant called "Tembo" which measured 15 feet by 9.5 feet!Following his latest safari in South Africa earlier this year, he came across a herd of elephant with their young and was able to get extremely close to study these magnificent animals in the wild. With all the material and reference he needed, he returned to his studio to start the mammoth task of painting his giant. In February 2005 and after building a canvas 15 feet by 11.5 feet, Richard started the first few brush strokes on this huge painting. 500 painstaking hours and 1 litre of oil paint later, Tembo was finished. A donation of $45,000 from the sale went directly to the Born Free Foundation. 'As with most of the work that I do, I love the effect you get with just using tones without the fuss and complication of colour, and I believe for a project of this size that the sepia oil is highly effective.I am, as always, honoured that Virginia Mckenna and her Born Free Foundation are helping in the publicity of 'Tembo' and I am delighted to donate a percentage of the sale from the painting to the foundation.' Born in 1969 Surrey England, Richard worked extensively around the Middle East and the USA for the military flying target drones for the air defense. In 1993 he decided to quit the military to persue his real passion, wildlife art and conservation.Following a string of commissions and sales he was soon exhibiting among galleries and auction houses in and around London including amongst others Harrods, Sotheby's and Christie's. His work has taken him through much of north and south Africa, northern America and Europe, and his paintings and drawings can be found in private collections through out the world.
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