This Years Donated Artwork for ‘Sketch for Survival’

‘Koala Hugs’ (2022), Hand Painted Digital Painting, 297 x 420 mm.

‘Sketch for Survival’ is an annual, international, art, competition. The competition was originally created in 2016 by the U.K conservation charity, ‘Explorers Against Extinction’; to raise awareness and funds for animal conservation. The brief is to submit an animal or landscape painting; a subject that is considered vulnerable to climate change and human behaviour. The top 100 short-listed artworks will then be exhibited at prestigious galleries in Edinburgh and London, such as the gallery@OXO on the Southbank. The artworks will then be auctioned live during the last week of exhibitions in November. Last year we raised an amazing £90,000 for the 2021 auction alone! I was very thrilled to have been a finalist last year and my piece, ‘We are all Mother’, raised £130.

‘We are all Mother’, Portrait of a Pygmy Chimpanzee Mother and her Baby, Watercolour, 197 x 420mm, Sketch for Survival, Top 100 Finalist,

This year I have decided to submit a different style of painting. I paint all the time and I like to experiment! Kola Hugs was hand painted digitally over the UK, 2021 Christmas Holiday. This was a direct response to the series of devastating bush fires that consumed large parts of Australia that year. I was really moved that the Koala population were severely affected by this disaster, and that’s why I chose Koalas as my subject. Early this year, the Australian Government officially declared the Koala species as ‘Endangered’, due to the consequences caused by climate change.

I decided to use monochrome colours for shock value, to represent charred organic matter. My hope is to capture the beauty of kolas whilst illustrating a devastating, ongoing crisis; a call to action.

I will find out if my work is shortlisted on 15th July, and if I am, I’ll be asked to send the artwork to the Explorers Against Extinction HQ for the second round of judging. Wish me luck!