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Education and increasing awareness is one of the basic aims of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement. Section 6 of ACAP's Action Plan calls for Parties to "seek to make local communities and the public in general more aware of the status of albatrosses and petrels and the threats facing them". One of the many ways this can be achieved is through the medium of art. Depicting ACAP-listed species as charismatic animals to admire and to cherish can only help raise consciousness among viewers and thus indirectly contribute to their conservation.
Leigh-Anne Wolfaardt is an artist currently living and working in the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)*. She has a particular interest in the wild and spectacular environments of islands, finding these isolated havens great sources of inspiration for her art, and has spent many years living on and exploring islands in South Africa and more recently in the South Atlantic, where among other subjects she has been drawn to including albatrosses and giant petrels in her art.
Leigh-Anne is passionate about translating the beauty and diversity of the natural world into fresh and innovative art. She uses a range of media and techniques in her artwork, from loose and colourful pen and ink artwork, to detailed technical drawings, scraperboard, linocuts, oil-on-canvas paintings and sculptures. Her illustrations have been published in natural history guidebooks and interpretative material, as well as in educational and children's storybooks. She has exhibited her paintings in a number of solo and group exhibitions.
Leigh-Anne produces a series of hand-printed and hand-inked linocut prints, supplying these to clients throughout the world. She also produces a colourful range of cards and prints, depicting the wildlife and beauty of the South Atlantic. She is currently working on a number of commissions inspired by the South Atlantic, its natural environment, as well as its people.
You can see more of her work and read her blog on her website: www.leighwolfaardt.com.
With thanks to Leigh-Anne Wolfaardt for information - and for the above selection from her work.
John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 July 2011
*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.