David Shepherd

David Shepherd is an internationally acclaimed wildlife artist and a conservationist who does not hesitate to give the credit of his success to all the animals that he paints.

The subjects of his work ranged from portraits of wildlife, landscapes, aviation, military subjects to steam railways. And he identifies himself as an extrovert and a natural promoter who likes to always make acquaintances with people in order to spread his message of wildlife conservation.

During school, the only reason he was interested in art was as a means of escaping Rigger practices which had been compulsory. After leaving school he had aspired to become a game warden and he left for Nairobi, Kenya to pursue his dream. However he was rejected from there to his utter disappointment and went on to take up a job as a receptionist in a hotel on the Kenya coast named “Malindi”, which paid him one pound a week.

He returned home disappointed and was left with two choices either to become an artist or a bus driver. Even though he thought to become a bus driver his father advised him otherwise. David Shepherd encouraged him to study art and become an artist. As a result he sent one of his paintings to The Slade School of Fine Art in London as it was the only art school he knew of at that time. But he was turned down from there as well saying that he did not have any talent for art. It was during this time that his good fortune brought him the opportunity to meet Robin Goodwin, a professional painter at a London cocktail party and he took David under his wing and he studied art with him for three years.

Upon finishing his studies with Goodwin, he started out painting aviation pictures. He got himself a special permission to visit the Heathrow Airport. In order to get commissions he gave his paintings to the airlines and promoted them. Finally they began to notice his work and the Chairman of the British Overseas Airways Corporation went on to hold an exhibition of his paintings. He even met his wife Avril, through the airlines.

In 1960, he was invited by the Royal Air Force to draw a painting of elephants in Kenya and that was his first step in wildlife painting and he did a portrait of a rhino which he sold for to the Royal Air Force for twenty five pounds.

As a conservationist he has raised more than 3million pounds through the David Shepherd Conservation Foundation since 1960 and was awarded the Order of the Golden Ark by HRH The Prince of The Netherlands for his distinguished service and the Order of the British Empire in 1979.

He was also awarded an Honorary Degree in Fine arts by the Pratt Institute in New York in 1971 and, in 1973 and in 1988, he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1989.

Two of his latest books, 'David Shepherd, My Painting Life' and David Shepherd 'Only One World', were published in October of the year 1995.