BY KAREN BOSSICK
Anne “A.E.” London was 8 when she saw “Born Free.” The 1966 movie about a couple who raised an orphaned lion cub changed her life.
“I told my mother, ‘I’m off to Africa. Please pack me a lunch,’ ” she said.
London didn’t make it to Africa that day. But she never fudged on her determination to go, even though she ended up there as an artist rather than a zoologist.
She has visited Africa every year for the past 44 years, raising a million dollars on behalf of endangered species with her “Portraits of the Wild.” ding unique ways to teach the natives about the importance of conservation. And she’s roamed through Asia and across the Americas, as well, in search of endangered species she can display in charcoal and water media and handcrafted engravings.
You can hear her stories and see the way she’s captured the heart and soul of the big beasts of the jungle and the grizzlies and wolves of America at the Artisans Invitational Art Fair.
The fair runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 4-5, and Sunday, Aug. 6, along Ketchum’s 4th Street corridor near Atkinsons’ Market.
It will feature 20 high-caliber artists from throughout the United States, including Denver oil painter Tate Hamilton; Shani Solomon, who uses the ancient form of Japanese block printing on silk skirts, and Anja a clothing designer from Amsterdam who creates fun, stretchy clothing for women out of soft woolens, light silks and stretch cottons. Also, Cathryn Martinez, who creates 18karat and 22 karat fine jewelry; Bill and Toni Palmer who combine talents in wood working and glass, and New York artist Beth Farber, who crafts beautiful emerald necklaces.
The show, started years ago by Janet Dunbar, offers “gallery quality without gallery prices” since it doesn’t have the overhead that galleries do, said Martinez, who raises horses cattle and goats near Pagosa Springs, Colo. Ten percent of the sales will go to Swiftsure Ranch therapeutic riding center near Bellevue.
London says she does her art for animals, connecting creativity with conservation.
“I want to bring out the unique personalities of each animal,” she said.
London was working in movie studio graphics design when she began doing storyboarding and logo design with actress Tippi Hedren. It was Hedren who founded the Shambala Preserve, a refuge in California for big cats, elephants and other endangered species.
Through that London realized she could meld her artwork with her love for animals.
“All I could think about was these animals and the problems they were facing as a species,” said London, who lives outside New Orleans with her oceanographer husband Jim Hart, whom she married on horseback during a beachside ceremony at the tip of Africa. “I wanted future generations to be able to experience the magnificence of seeing these beautiful animals living in their native habitat.”
Each of London’s portraits has a narrative line. “He was focused on the far horizon as I drew the many scars, a testament to a life of successful choices…” she wrote next to a portrait of a lion.
London sketches each animal she encounters en plein air on the pages of a foot-tall leather bound book.
Anne has to draw fast, especially in the case of carnivores.
“Lions seem to think that the sound of my charcoal on paper, the rustling of paper, is something tasty lurking in the bush,” she said. “One time I looked down to draw for a minute. I looked up and the lion I had been drawing was right there in front of me.”
London started out with paints but began using charcoal and coffee after monkeys ate her art supplies.
“You can always find coffee in the bush and you can always make charcoal,” London said. “I brew the coffee and cook it down depending on how dark I want it. I thought I had stumbled on something new, but then I discovered that the ancient Egyptians painted with coffee!”
Back in her studio in New Orleans, London covers her canvases with a gesso she’s thickened with marble. She recreates the portraits in her sketchbook on the canvases, which can be as large as 4-by-6 feet. Sometimes London swishes her finger nails through the gesso and the coffee and charcoal, creating what some viewers have likened to the claws of an animal.
“I have to step back and look at my work so much that I’ve worn a groove into the floor from walking back and forth,” she said.
London has worked with several conservation organizations, including The Project Hope Foundation, International Rhino Foundation, The Cheetah Conservation Foundation and Shambala Preserve. Anne’s been featured in such magazines as “The Wildlife Journal,” and she’s appeared on such TV programs as “Animal Planet.”
In 2014 she and her husband developed a school program called Art for Animals, where they teach kids in the Kalahari how to draw wildlife as a way to educate them about the importance of saving the animals. The kids have sold the note cards they’ve painted to raise money for their school. And many have received scholarships to attend art school and anti-poaching police training.
“It’s all about turning people onto conservation in a positive way,” said London. “Even here, I’ve been able to talk to people about wolves, which is a hot topic in your area.”
Anne London has spent years studying wildlife anatomy in the jungle and during surgeries.