New international award honours legacy of Matlock wildlife artist

The inaugural Pollyanna Pickering Endangered Species Award was won by New Zealand painter Douglass Lockyer at a ceremony held by the international wildlife art group Artists for Conservation (AFC) at a gala ceremony on Friday, March 25.

Pollyanna’s daughter and business partner Anna-Louise Pickering travelled to the Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson to present the accolade, in recognition of Douglass’s wallhanging ‘Tim: One of the last and Largest Giant Tuskers’.

Anna-Louise said: “I am so moved that the AFC are honouring Pollyanna by naming this award in her memory. It is wonderful to know that her name will continue to provide inspiration and recognition to other talented wildlife artists.

“The combined ethos of exploration, conservation and artistic skill embodied by this award reflects perfectly Pollyanna’s ultimate aim for her own work, and I know it will form a key part of her legacy.”

The winning artwork depicts Tim, an African elephant which lived at the Tsavo East National Park in Kenya and one of less than half a dozen of the animals remaining famed for tusks which reached the ground.

He was, according to Tsavo gamekeepers “intelligent, mischievous, and good natured – a genuine gentle giant”.

In a lifetime of around 50 years, Tim had survived attacks with spears by farmers during his frequent night raids on crops, and once almost drowned in a mud pit – but eventually died of natural causes in March 2020, having become one of the park’s most beloved inhabitants.

Douglass’s watercolour was exhibited at the museum among 50 works from some of the world’s leading wildlife artists, and he described it as “a great joy” to meet Anna-Louise and receive an award acknowledging “her mother’s outstanding contribution to wildlife art and conservation activism.”

AFC founder Jeff Whiting said “We are so proud to announce this new award, in memory of Pollyanna Pickering – a prominent AFC member and artistic legend.”