About Richard David Shepherd
Richard David Shepherd CBE FRSA FGRA (1931 – 2017) was born in Hendon, London. He was most famous for his wildlife and steam locomotives paintings. He sometimes even painted aircrafts, portraits and landscapes too.
Since the 1960s, his work has been very popular and had limited edition print reproductions.
When he was just eight years old, he won a children’s painting competition in a magazine called Nursery World.
After he left school, he travelled to Kenya with the hope of becoming a game warden, but was unsuccessful. He then decided to return to the UK, but was soon also rejected by the Slade School of Art. However, he was then taught by the artist Robin Goodwin, who trained him for three years.
Whilst in Africa, Shepherd became interested in conservation where he discovered a poisoned water hole with 255 dead zebra. He then became an world-known campaigner and set up the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. He was also made an office of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1980 and a commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2008 for services to charity and wildlife conservation.
His paintings were not only collected by art enthusiasts, but they also raised a lot of money for conservation. His first success was a painting titled ‘Tiger Fire’ which raised £127,000 for Indira Gandhi’s Operation Tiger in 1973.
He published five books about his art, including an autobiography.