LionAid Artists

Kim Thompson works as both a wildlife artist and illustrator. She trained at Dyfed College of Art, West Wales, where she studied on a specialist wildlife illustration course, graduating with a Distinction in the late 1980s.

Concentrating on natural history subjects, including animals, birds, fish, reptiles and even dinosaurs, Kim paints a huge variety of creatures for many different companies. She has worked on projects for Marshall Cavendish, International Masters Publishers and illustrated book jackets for Macmillan Books as well as a series of children’s pop-up books for Templar Publishing. In addition she has produced wildlife and animal illustrations for advertisements and has worked through several art agencies. Her work has also been used to promote art materials for both Liquitex and Chroma Colour.

As well as illustrating wildlife, Kim is also a wildlife artist, painting for exhibitions and to commission. In the past she was commissioned by Royal Doulton to produce the artwork for a range of limited edition prints of British owls and animal images for their fine bone china ware. Her original paintings have been sold at Christie’s Wildlife Art auctions and are published by Rosenstiels, a major U.K based fine art publisher. She is also a regular participant in the Artist in Residence program at Nature in Art, Gloucester, a unique museum and gallery dedicated to promoting wildlife art and artists from around the world.

Kim is a committee member of Marwell International Wildlife Art Society, one of the biggest wildlife art societies in Europe, exhibiting regularly at their annual summer show and teaching on painting workshops held by the society. She has also exhibited and sold work at the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art (NEWA) in the Wirral. In June 2005 ‘Portrait of a Cheetah’, was exhibited at the Society of Women artists show in the Mall galleries and received the Princess Michael of Kent Watercolour Award. The Princess later bought the painting. Kim also exhibits work with the Society of Equestrian Artists at the Mall Galleries, London.

Working primarily in acrylics, pencil and oils, Kim’s paintings and illustrations are characterised by a close attention to detail and realism. Exploring the British countryside on foot or horseback provides Kim with many of her ideas for paintings. She has a particular love for the rolling, windswept South Downs near to where she lives, The New Forest and the rugged beauty of Dartmoor. However, the breathtaking wilderness and wildlife of Botswana has left a lasting impression and is a great source of material for her work.

As with many wildlife artists, Kim hopes that her work can help further the efforts of conservation and make more people aware of the amazing creatures who share our planet. She supports the work several conservation charities and tries to raise awareness of the plight of threatened species in talks and painting demonstrations.

 Kim's website can be found here