Art Ambassadors

Helping Rhinos is enormously grateful to the following ‘Art Ambassadors’ who have given their time and their talent to help protect critically endangered rhino and the wild landscapes in which the rhino, and a myriad of other wildlife thrives.

Karen
Laurence-Rowe

Karen’s life in Africa has given her an extraordinary empathy for the wildlife and landscapes that she paints, earning her global recognition and numerous awards. Karen’s concern for the conservation of endangered wildlife species and has helped raise more than £85,000 through her artworks. She has been a Global Patron for Helping Rhinos since 2016.

EMMA
SWIFT

Emma is an award-winning wildlife artist working predominantly in oils. Combining vivid colours with bold brush strokes, alongside more intricate detail, she brings her passion for animals and birds to life. Wildlife is inextricably linked to its environment and she uses colour to bring the subject and background together, reminding us how everything is interconnected.

MATTHEW
BELL

Matthew was born in April 1989 in Nelspruit, South Africa and has always had a love for the bushveld in that area of the country. Pencil is the only medium Matthew was ever interested in using. Each drawing of Matthew’s is ‘constructed’ using many layers of pencil, whether colour or graphite.

Sarah
Lake Paper Art

Sarah found a love of layered paper cutting ten years ago. Starting with a photograph, each piece is cut by hand with a scalpel, using 6-9 sheets of paper. These are then glued down to give the artwork its depth. Each piece can take between 7 – 21 days to complete. Sarah has been awarded for her artworks and has exhibited at the Oxo Gallery in London.

Gary
Hodges

Gary Hodges is the UK’s best-selling and most collectable pencil wildlife artist, an impressive accolade for a self-taught and self-published artist. The huge demand for Gary’s limited-edition prints has enabled him to follow his heart and support charities dear to him, including Helping Rhinos.

DIANA
HÖHLIG

Diana lives in Switzerland and describes her relation to the natural world and her art as the true essence of life. She loves the honest feeling of joy when close to wild animals and her frequent travels act as inspiration for her many stunning pictures of wildlife, winning her numerous awards.

JOSH
GLUCKSTEIN

Josh is a London-based wildlife artist who puts sustainability at the heart of his artworks. Using recycled materials to create the tone and textures of life-size animal sculptures, he portrays the presence and personality of the many majestic animals he has seen in the wild. The accessibility and versatility of cardboard with other recycled fabrics brings his animals to life.

MARGARET
VELDMAN-JONES

Painting became an integral part of Margaret’s life since taking the plunge from science into art in 2017. This UK-based Dutch artist turns her hand to any subject, but portraying wildlife remains closest to her heart. Supporting charities is a key driver in her work, which aims to be uplifting and positive through the bold use of colours, marks and collage materials.

Dawn
Thornhill

Dawn Thornhill, a UK paper artist, creates original hand-drawn and hand-cut paper lightboxes. Inspired by nature, and her trips over the last 20 years to Southern Africa, she uses layered paper and lights to tell a story or capture a special memory.

TOM
MIDDLETON

Tom Middleton is a self-taught artist from Lancaster, now based in London. Tom’s original pieces are all hand drawn, in graphite pencil. His precision and high definition of his wildlife subjects, is helping to raise awareness of the poaching crisis in Africa.

Henry
Fraser

Henry Fraser was 17 years old when a tragic accident severely crushed his spinal cord. Paralysed from the shoulders down, Henry has conquered unimaginable difficulty to embrace life and a new way of living and has become an accomplished mouth-painter.

Peter
Pharoah

Born in Johannesburg, Peter studied art and graphic design before joining Young & Rubicam, an internationally recognised advertising agency, where he worked as an art director and illustrator. He is proficient in all mediums – airbrush, pastels, gouache and acrylics and became a full-time fine artist in 1998.

Kenda
Francis

Kenda Francis earned a Bachelor of Art from San Diego state university as well as a Masters degree in painting from California State University. Kenda has also earned an Associates in Zoology and two teaching credentials. She teaches art at a local high school and through her art and photography has found a way to combine her love for animals, her desire to help them and to create inspiring works.

Sarah
Cobden-Ramsay

Sarah Cobden-Ramsey founded Rhino Tears Jewellery in 2016 following an eye-opening experience at the Kariega Game Reserve in South Africa where she met the famous poaching survivor rhino, Thandi. Sarah has subsequently sold thousands of Rhino Tears around the world with all the profits donated to help rhino conservation, community and anti-poaching projects.

STM
STUDIO

STM STUDIO was launched by Shoji and Momoko Terada. Since they were fascinated by wildlife during their honeymoon in South Africa in 2014, passionately creating art, that combines its beauty with the importance of conservation. Their studio provides their art to conservation organisations around the world. It was a finalist in the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year 2022.

LUCY
Webster

Lucy is an award-winning wildlife and pet artist who uses coloured pencils to create highly detailed drawings. Lucy has always had an affinity for nature, however her passion for conservation was really ignited when she studied a Wildlife Conservation degree at Nottingham Trent University. She now uses art to raise awareness and funds to support wildlife projects.

SOPHIE
GREEN

Sophie Green is a highly skilled fine artist, who specialises in capturing the photorealistic details of animals and their surroundings using acrylic paint. Her meticulous attention to detail renders particular moments in time to capture emotion and expression. Sophie has dedicated her time and artistic work to raising?awareness for issues surrounding animal welfare and the environment.

Justin
Mott

Justin Mott is an award-winning photographer completing 100s of assignments for the New York Times and featuring in National Geographic, Smithsonian, TIME, Greenpeace, among many others. Justin is an avid animal welfare advocate and in 2018 pivoted the focus of his work to wildlife photojournalism and conservation photography.

Sara
Wilson

Sara Wilson is a Los Angeles based fashion photographer. After extensive travel in South Africa, Sara became involved in rhino conservation and is an Ambassador for Helping Rhinos. Sara’s striking image ‘Atonement’ was shot at Zululand Rhino Orphanage in South Africa and won 1st prize in the wildlife category of the 2019 Julia Margaret Camera Awards for Women Photographers. @fashionsaysno

Ben
Wallace

Ben Wallace is a British documentary Film Maker, Photographer and Conservationist. Ben achieved a BSc (Hons) in wildlife conservation at Nottingham Trent University and has since travelled to some of the most remote places in the world combining his passions; to raise awareness to the plight that our wildlife faces, and support the organisations that work tirelessly to protect them.

Sam
Turley

Sam Turley is a conservation zoologist and wildlife photographer. Sam has won numerous awards including ‘highly commended’ in Africa Geographic 2021 photographer of the year competition. He was the overall winner of the 2020 Wilderness Safaris People’s Choice Award and was a three-time finalist in the highly prestigious 2020 Natural History Museum’s Photographer of the Year competition.

Tori
Ratcliffe

Tori Ratcliffe’s unique painting style resulted from her early introduction to watercolours by her aunt. She was impatient with the process so developed her own style of loosely adding watercolour paint, followed by the addition of fine details in pen. Within a year of leaving university, Tori managed to turn her painting passion into a career and began to fully establish herself as a working artist, exhibiting in many galleries.

Nicola
Davies

Nicola Davies is a zoologist and award-winning author of over fifty books which have been published in more than ten different languages and won major awards in the UK, US and the EU. Last, the story of a white rhino, was her debut as an illustrator.

Tomasz
Mikutel

Tomasz was born in Lodz (Poland) in 1983, six years before communism fell. In 2007, Tomasz moved to the UK where he has stayed, painting animals & architecture in his home studio in Northampton. Tomasz is a self-taught artist and fell in love with watercolours early in his career. He also enjoys doing quick pencil sketches which he shares with his followers on Instagram.

Jonathan
Chiswell-Jones

Jonathan Chiswell Jones is one of only a handful of potters worldwide practising the remarkable potter’s technique of reduction fired lustre, a technique first used by the Islamic potters of the 10th century.  Jonathan works with fellow artisan potter, Kerry Bosworth, making and decorating fine pots by hand, producing work that is practical, beautiful and unmistakably theirs.

Tom
Svensson

Tom is a Danish award-winning conservation photographer and an environmental influencer, now living in Fjällbacka in Sweden. He is seen as a master of light and thought of as one of the best. The work to preserve and save endangered animals, and hopefully be able to make a difference, is a very important part of his life.

Elaine
Hoj

Elaine Hoj lives in Sweden and silver smithing has been the hobby of her’s for the last 14 years. Elaine is also a big rhino lover and, as she says, ‘I am just trying to help in any small way I can, as rhinos need all help they can get from us.’ Elaine’s delicate sterling silver jewellery is popular with all our rhino supporters.

Jonathan
Parkinson

Sculptor, Jonathan Parkinson started his career in advertising and photography in London and South Africa before setting up his own production company. On meeting Donald Greig (Donald Greig Sculptures), Jonathan was invited to join him for a few evenings at his studio and took to sculpting immediately.  Jonathan now has an impressive portfolio of limited-edition bronzes.