And so my American wildlife series begins...
I couldn't decide which beautiful animal to do first, so was delighted when Margot Raggett from Remembering Wildlife contacted me and the choice was more or less made for me. She asked me if I would be able to donate another image to their kickstarter campaign (following on from my donation of a wild dog print last year), that this year their book was to be about Remembering Bears and would I happen to have one floating around that I could donate, or could I get one done in a month! The answer was no I didn't, but that I would give it my best shot!
The first thing was to find an image that I loved, one that was not typical, but was still powerful and told a story. So I spent 2 or 3 days scouring the internet, as sadly I have not had the privilege of seeing one in the flesh, and then I had to find the photographer who took it, to ask his permission to use it! This was easier said than done and took me the best part of a week to track him down (thankfully a week I was down with covid and unable to do much else) - I have to say here, that I actually impressed myself at my super sleuthing, it was like finding a kneedle in a haystack - I had an image, one of thousands, and only 'Tom' as a name to work with! However I eventually I found him and I think even he was impressed that i had worked it out. His name is Tom Ingram and I am delighted to say that all of his work is some of the best that I have come across (links at bottom)
And so to work. Could I do it in a month? I told my mother my plans and remember distinctly saying, 'it shouldn't be too hard' (she did not sound at all convinced ... its true, mothers do always know best!) - and I began. But because I was under this misguided judgement that two very complex things to get right - wet fur and water - were easy, I got rather carried away with the size and merrily drew the bear at least double the size than I originally intended. But after 6 weeks, almost a couple of hundred hours later and one near disaster the bear was finally done. I over ran by a couple of weeks, but thankfully it was no matter and the 5 donated prints have still been included in the campaign to raise some much needed funds.
In addition I will also be giving 10% of the profits from the prints to conservation. This time it will be given to a personal pledge I have made to Soysambu Conservancy, to raise money for a drone and other essential, critically lacking, conservation equipment.
The original is available to purchase either framed (approx 115h x 121w cm) or unframed (87h x 87w cm) for ease of shipment. Please just contact me directly if you are interested. 100 limited edition prints are also now available but they are going fast and now at number 17 in the first few hours. They are available in two different sizes - one cropped to be more portrait at 59h x 42w cm and one faithful to the original size at 56h x 60w cm. These can now be found on my website www.charlotte-williams.com.
With huge thanks again for all your continued support and for reading this all way through - especially as I am not a natural author!
Wishing you all a very Happy Easter
Charlotte
www.soysambuconservancy.org Insta: @soysambuconservancy
www.rememberingwildlife.com Insta: @rememberingwildlife
www.tomingramphotography.com Insta: @tomingramphotography
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