Wildlife Artist 2012

The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundations’ Wildlife Artist of the Year 2012 is Kenyan artist Karen Laurence-Rowe with her Rothschild Mirage (CLICK). She also won the Endangered Wildlife category, worth £6,500, in addition to the top prize of £10,000. The Rothschild giraffe is an endangered subspecies on the Red List with only a few hundred left in the wild in western Kenya and eastern Uganda. Painting them as a mirage brings home just how fragile their existence is. Blink and they're gone.