Simon Combes; wildlife artist (buffalo killed him)
Hyfler/Rosner
From The Independent ~
BYLINE: DAVID SHEPHERD
http://www.greenwichworkshop.com/thumbnails/default.asp?a=17&detailtype=artist
(his art, and it's great)
http://pictures.fwdart.com/Photos/s1/fwdart.com/combes/Originals/9.jpg
http://www.showcaseeditions.com/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Afterglow_Paper_282.html
ANYONE WHO weeps tears over the loss of a pet caterpillar or
gives a ride to an uncooperative tortoise on the seat of his
bicycle because it is too heavy to carry must be a
warm-hearted person. Such was the best- selling wildlife
artist Simon Combes, who has been killed by a buffalo in
Kenya, the country that he loved and in which he lived for
much of his life.
Combes was born in Dorset in 1940. When he was five years
old, his father returned from the Second World War and
joined a government scheme to help those coming out of the
services to acquire and settle on land to farm in Kenya. The
following year the family moved to the Great Rift Valley; in
Combes's own words, "It must have been hell to everybody
else but it was a wonderful adventure for a small boy."
It is clear from Combes's narrative of his early life, in An
African Experience: wildlife art and adventure in Kenya
(1990), that education was far from his mind. He attended
the Duke of York School in Nairobi. By now the shadow of Mau
Mau had begun to manifest itself - it must have been a
difficult time for young white children growing up.
Nevertheless, the rebellious side of Combes's nature came to
the fore, and he made a great friend of a Kipsigis
tribesman. Together, in spite of the dangers, they walked in
the bush and Simon became a close friend of the man, whom he
regarded as his mentor.
However, things did not go well for the family farm and
instead his father was offered a job to manage a 50,000-acre
ranch owned by Lord Delamere. Combes was determined to rebel
against any ideas of school and "civilisation", deciding to
go and live, in his own words, "in the bush for ever". At
the age of 18 he took a job managing a 2,000-acre farm with
150 employees in the Rift Valley.
The following year he was drafted into the Kenya Regiment to
do his National Service. He was then accepted for officer
training at Sandhurst, but first spent a period of time in
Uganda, where he had the dubious distinction of teaching Idi
Amin military tactics and etiquette.
Back in Kenya, he was commissioned into the King's African
Rifles and later served as commander of Kenya's airborne
forces. He fought in the deserts in the north of the
country, in the guerrilla war against Somalia. Here, he took
up a new hobby, drawing and painting the nomadic people and
the landscape in which they lived. His first exhibition was
held, while he was still serving as a soldier, at the New
Stanley Art Gallery in Nairobi in 1969. Almost all the
paintings sold. In 1974 he retired from the army to paint
full time for a living.
In 1978 Combes came back to Britain with his wife Susie
(whom he had married in 1966), first to Worcestershire and
then Gloucestershire, so that their children could be
educated in England. They continued to spend three months
every winter in Kenya, where Combes would work as a
photographic guide on safari, collecting material and
seeking inspiration for his paintings. He returned to live
permanently in Kenya five years ago.
Combes would have been the first to admit that his artistic
breakthrough came when his work was recognised by the
Greenwich Workshop in Connecticut, which began publishing
his work in 1979 in limited-edition prints and canvases.
Success came fast - his photo-realistic paintings proved
enormously popular, and he became undoubtedly one of the
leading wildlife artists in the world, with the majority of
his pictures being sold in the United States. The company
also published Great Cats (1998), an illustrated travelogue
of Combes's 1993 journey through Asia, Africa, North and
South America painting big cats in their natural habitats.
Simon Combes and I became close friends in the 1970s. We
shared many hilarious moments, raising money for wildlife,
drawing on tablecloths at dinner parties. I'll never forget
an evening hosted by Greenwich Workshop: we returned to our
hotel in the bus, somewhat inebriated, each trying to outdo
the other in highly dangerous tactics, including hanging
upside down from the luggage rack.
As well as achieving worldwide success and winning awards,
Combes was also an active supporter of wildlife conservation
organisations, including the Rhino Rescue Trust (becoming
Kenya Representative and Project Director in 2003) and the
David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. We both felt, as
wildlife artists, that we owed our success to the animals we
painted. His immense generosity, through donating pictures,
raised many thousands of pounds.
Combes's knowledge of bushcraft was unmatched. He certainly
had very close encounters with animals in the bush but would
never regard them as dangerous unless given a reason to do
so. I am sure that, had he survived this terrible
catastrophe, Combes would have said, "I know why that
buffalo charged me. He had probably been shot at by a
poacher armed with an AK47."
Simon Glenton Combes, artist: born Shaftesbury, Dorset 20
June 1940; twice married (one son, one daughter); died near
Nakuru, Kenya 12 December 2004.