About The Artist - Mo (Maureen) Rich
Thanks for taking an interest in my work, which allows me to express both my creativity and my love of the natural world. Through years of experimentation, pastels have become my favourite media for such natural subjects, being as vivid and yet as blendable as the colours seen in fur and feather.
I live in the UK, on the South Wales coast, and am inspired in part by the beautiful Welsh landscapes and variety of birdlife supported by the Severn Estuary. Yet to capture the character of an individual is the greatest challenge, which is why I also enjoy doing portraits of people and pets.
Wildlife webcam sites such as AfriCam, inspired me to portray the more exotic animals of Africa and elsewhere, of which the big cats soon became my favourites. Through "KimKam," (now superceded by Wildcast.net) filmmaker Kim Wolhuter shared his experiences in making a documentary about a leopard named Tjololo ("He Who Walks Alone"), and kindly granted permission to use his images in my artwork. The painting "TJ" was created as a special thankyou to Kim, and was presented to him when he came to Bristol for the Wildlife Film Awards in 2000.
At around the same time, I entererd the Paint a Wildlife Subject (PAWS) competition, which was organised by the internationally acclaimed wildlife artist and conservationist Roy Chaffin. Each year, 100 finalists were selected from thousands of entries, the last (2004) only being open to previous finalists. Each of my entries earned a Highly Commended certificate, and was exhibited with other finalists' work in Olympia and Watford's Harlequin Centre. My 2004 entry, published in the PAWS yearbook, also remains on display at the PAWS website. My PAWS award-winning paintings were:
- 1998 Two Green Lorikeets
- 2000 Stalking Tiger
- 2001 Sweet Nothings
- 2004 Burning Bright
In recent years, I have taken part in a number of art festivals and held my own exhibition in a Newport gallery. My 'Art Cards' series of mini-paintings in acrylics have also proven very popular on eBay, where they are known as 'ACEOs' - search for 'mozisart' or click here to find my current eBay auctions. Both these and my other paintings are now in private collections worldwide.