Tony Forrest’s Wildlife Art

I have been painting the wildlife of Africa and India for over thirty five years. I am passionate about the natural world. I am also passionate about wildlife art and painting.  At the age of about seven I became aware that I liked looking at big paintings and even at that tender age I was aware of subtleties and the brush strokes made by artists whose originals hung in my primary school.

The was a major transition for me when I was in my 20s. I became aware of the paintings of one artist who I had never heard of at the time: wildlife artist David Shepherd. I watched a TV programme about David and his work - from that moment I was hopelessly hooked on painting wildlife and I was also besotted with Shepherd’s amazing work. When I was about 25, I went to a gallery near Bournemouth and saw a new print called “Sleepy Tigers”. It was David Shepherd’s latest print. I stood outside the gallery looking at the print displayed in the window: that was the first time a painting ever made me cry. It was beautiful. I have been a great fan of David’s work ever since.

My own main speciality is producing paintings of African and Indian wildlife. There is a story hidden in all my work; each painting has its own journey from the initial visual experience in the wild to the final stroke of the brush in my studio. I have travelled to Africa many times and whenever I am driving around a nature reserve, large or small, I am both excited and apprehensive. Excited to see so much drama waiting to be painted and apprehensive because I worry about missing something! The subjects that excite me are often not the cutest - we all love to see a leopard or lion cub, but oil painting can be so exciting with certain subjects; elephants, buffalo, rhino, hippo. These animals lend themselves to being painted in a way that really captures their character - thick mud, their sheer bulk and power.

I hope that my paintings serve as a reminder that the fauna and flora with which we share this planet is in danger of being lost for ever unless we all appreciate it more and take positive steps to conserve it.

I only paint a tiny fraction of all the animals on earth - only around 4% of all animals on this planet are wild. The other 96% are all domestic creatures, including humans. In the last 200 years or so, the human race has gone from around a billion people to over 8 billion today. It’s a sobering thought isn’t it?

New tiger safari photos coming shortly…

In March 2025 I went to India’s fabulous Ranthambore tiger reserve with my wife, Margaret. We had very good tiger sightings on every safari drive except one - when we saw two leopards! The story and photos will be here shortly.

Cotswold Contemporary Gallery

I have now teamed up with Cotswold Contemporary Gallery in Cirencester. They have a number of beautiful galleries and now have a number of my recent paintings on display. I am delighted to be working with them and we are all excited about the future.

INSTAGRAM
You can follow my work right up to date on Instagram. Search for “tonyforrestwildlifeart” to keep in touch with what I am painting at this very moment. New posts including photos and short video clips are being added every few days. With Instagram I am able to show new work as it is created and you can get an insight into my thoughts and process and, in a virtual sense, stand right behind me in my studio.