Gary Hodges
[1] His original drawings and limited edition prints have sold widely in the UK and throughout the world and is collected by large numbers of ordinary citizens, many not previously seeing themselves as "art collectors".
[14] In 1983 his drawings were highly commended at the Wildlife Illustrator of the Year Exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London and he had his first solo show at the Everyman Foyer Gallery, Hampstead in 1984.
[15] Hodges first met the stars of the iconic movie Born Free, Virginia McKenna and the late Bill Travers, in 1989 at the Society of Wildlife Artists' annual exhibition in London.
"[24] Virginia McKenna's secretary took a limited edition print of George Adamson with Boy and Christian into a framing shop in Croydon, Surrey.
[25] In 1992 he drew Bengal Tigress and Cub especially for the UK televised charity appeal ITV Telethon, prints of which were sold through the Fast Frame franchise.
[27] Already associated with two wildlife groups – Born Free Foundation and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) (his partner Dave Currey a founding director) – he decided to donate the proceeds to these two organisations to aid their work.
At the private view the queue to enter tailed down the Mall and inside there was a constant line of people trying to buy originals and limited editions prints.
The event was on local television, an auction was held, and a number of notable UK celebrities actively involved themselves in helping and buying his art.
Although Hodges was already well established, after this huge success his prints became more in demand, editions sold out in weeks and secondary art market prices increased.
It raised about £34,000 which went towards feeding starving working elephants in Kaziranga National Park, India, an orang-utan research project in Borneo and a tiger campaign.
[11] Although throughout this period Hodges was much less prolific than in his earlier years, he spent a lot of time updating older drawings and releasing them as limited edition signed prints.
The crocodile drawing was featured in a film documentary "Drawn to Wildlife" in time lapse photography, showing the painstaking detail and technique of Hodges as an artist.
[11] Hodges states this trip had "an incredibly powerful effect" on him and it resulted in a new drawing Plea for the Rainforest (1999) – an evocative portrait of a baby orang-utan peering over its mother's head who is pleading to the viewer.
The print edition sold out before release and Hodges states it hangs in 1,300 homes, including some of his celebrity collectors such as Martina Navratilova, Kiki Dee, Pam St Clement and Rula Lenska.
[39] Working with the same film producer that had made "Drawn to Wildlife" in 1998, David Felber, Hodges travelled to Kenya with actress and friend Rula Lenska to make a new DVD based around his drawing of elephants.
On return to Ibiza, Hodges drew, again filmed in time lapse for the "Wild at Art" DVD, Joy (2003) of young African elephants running towards a waterhole.
Soulmates (2007), a drawing of snow leopards sold for £16,500 at the Society of Wildlife Artists' annual show in 2007 also winning the 2007 Visitors' Award out of over 400 exhibits.
[48] In 2015, in preparation for a major solo show at the Mall Galleries in central London, Hodges has embellished around 40 collectable limited edition prints.
Two of their five galleries were used for a five-week major retrospective show of his art called "Drawn to the Soul" with forty-five Hodges' originals on display.
[1] In 2013 Hodges was recognised in a show at Nature in Art "Wildlife Masters" where he was the only pencil artist exhibited with painters David Shepherd, Simon Combes, Anthony Gibbs and sculptor Geoffrey Dashwood.
He has visited East Africa on many occasions with notable elephant drawings, big cats other African wildlife gaining inspiration from the wild.
[36][40][50] He created a number of drawings including Owl Butterfly (1994), Green Iguana (1993), Sunlight and Shadows (1994) and Young Caiman (1993) after two visits to Venezuela in 1992/93.
Most recently Hodges has photographed and observed green and loggerhead turtles on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, in The Maldives and Galápagos Islands and used the references for The Incredible Journey.
[53] Amongst these are the two he has supported the most, the Born Free Foundation, founded by Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers and The Environmental Investigation Agency co-founded by his civil partner Dave Currey.
Since the parade was based in London he chose to add a splash of blue by painting the River Thames across the elephant with each side adorned in ripped parts of his own prints.
The shape of the river twisting through London is also famous because of the opening credits of the British soap opera EastEnders, which Hodges felt appropriate since his friend Lenska had appeared in this show and another collector Pam St Clement has starred in it for many years.
The resulting elephant named Tattoo – Born to be Wild (2010) was displayed in a "herd" in London's Green Park facing Buckingham Palace in the warm summer of 2010.
[62][63][64] Hodges work has appeared in a number of different publications including books by Virginia McKenna, Sir Timothy Ackroyd, Lissa Ruben and Peter Wood (Greenpeace).
Heart & Soul is an autobiography with portfolio of all his published work to date and was launched at Nature in Art Museum by TV Wildlife presenter Nigel Marven.
[70] Heart & Soul My Life and Drawings includes a foreword by Virginia McKenna OBE "You might not guess that this modest and somewhat self-effacing man is the genius behind the extraordinary pictures he creates.
