Along with Tanzania, Kenya has been one of Gary’s most visited locations. It has inspired many drawings with its abundance of wildlife and huge wide skies.

Some of his most memorable drawings have been of elephants and visiting Daphne Sheldrick’s elephant orphanage in Nairobi has given this city some additional meaning to him. The young elephants are moved from the orphanage to Tsavo East National Park to be released back into the wild. In the film made about Gary’s drawing, Wild at Art, Gary and Rula Lenska visit the orphanage, meet Daphne and travel to Tsavo to see the elephants as they are reintroduced.

GARY WITH ORPHANED ELEPHANTS  PHOTOS: RULA LENSKA

Years earlier Gary had drawn two elephant orphans for a book Cry from the Wild by friend Lissa Ruben. Daphne has it hanging in her home and says “It is one of my most treasured possessions. To me it is the work of a Master, not only accurate in every detail, but subtly portraying the character of the animals with deep sensitivity.”

Kenya’s largest National Park, Tsavo, first developed as a protected area by Daphne’s husband David, has been visited by Gary many times. Sometimes you see little more than a few secretary birds and impala, but at other times Gary has witnessed baby elephants climbing over each other in the lush grass in long rains season, or simply watched a few birds on a lake on the Tanzanian border under Mount Kilimanjaro.

GARY WITH ORPHANED BLACK RHINOCEROS  PHOTO: RULA LENSKA

The Nile Crocodile was drawn from references photographed in Samburu National Park in northern Kenya. In this arid land, the Samburu River provides vital water to the wildlife of the area. One of Gary’s favourite destinations, Samburu offers opportunities to watch leopard, cheetah, elephants as well as some different northern species such as Grevys zebra and sub species like the reticulated giraffe, and Somali ostrich.

The wildebeest migration in Masai Mara has been a highlight of many visitors to Kenya. For Gary, it is extraordinary, but he gains no pleasure from watching the animals being picked off by crocodiles as they wade across the Mara River. He’s seen the crocodiles and the carcasses, but this is not Gary’s world. Mara to him is cheetah, lions, gazelle and topi standing on mounds, and a quiet, secret early morning glimpse of a serval leaping in the air to catch a grasshopper.

THE ORPHANS 1991 PENCIL DRAWING