Lisa Ann Watkins, local pet portrait and wildlife artist, who teaches workshops in Ross-on-Wye was thrilled to contribute a painting to an auction at an event which raised over £85,000.

In 2014, Lisa held an art exhibition at Taurus Crafts in Lydney entitled ‘If You Go Down to the Woods Today,’ which was the result of her having travelled to Romania to tour the world’s largest bear sanctuary Libearty, the previous year.

It led Lisa to work with the founders of such amazing organisations as Wildlife SOS, Free the Bears and Animals Asia. With the latter, she worked closely with Jill Robinson MBE to tell the story of the moon bears and a very special bear called Quantock.

“Jill’s work in closing down these farms and educating hearts and minds around the globe is just amazing, and my original piece of artwork was of course donated to their annual gala event to help fundraise.”

Hosted by one of Animal Asia’s UK ambassadors, Peter Egan, along with other long term supporters like Peter Wakeman, Rula Lenska and Virginia McKenna OBE, the event raised over £85,000, with Lisa’s piece being part of the silent auction.

Lisa said: “I am so honoured to have played such a small part in this amazing event and was also very much in awe to meet these people who really are making a difference in the world of wildlife campaigning. I came home full of inspiration to give more animals a voice with my future work.”