Society of Wildlife Artists
The Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) is a British artists' association of painters who depict the fauna and flora . It belongs to the Federation of British Artists (FBA) and is based in the Mall Galleries in London , where the other of the nine members of the Federation of British Artists are also housed.
history
The Society of Wildlife Artists was founded in 1964 to raise public awareness of the beauty and vulnerability of wildlife. In the late 1950s, the works of animal and plant painters were difficult to access, although interest in natural history grew steadily during this period. So Robert Gillmor and Eric Ennion, with the enthusiastic support of Peter Scott and Keith Shackleton, organized an exhibition of contemporary depictions of birds at Reading Art Gallery in 1960. The director of the Art Exhibitions Bureau , Maurice Bradshaw, became aware of the exhibition and then sent it on tour for a year.
The provincial galleries were so interested that the tour was extended for another year. RB Talbot-Kelly and Maurice Wilson joined as organizers to help set up a company. The Society of Wildlife Artists' first exhibition was held in London in August 1964 and was opened by James Fisher . The exhibition featured 149 works by 35 founding members, including Donald Watson , eight of whom are still members of the Society today. By 2004, 482 works had been selected for the annual exhibition in the Mall Galleries . The society had so far 76 elected and 6 associate members.