Customer Feature - Roy Chaffin, Artist

An Exhibition of his work is currently showing at The Ferrari Centre.

In 1986 Roy Chaffin gave up a successful commercial career to devote all his time to becoming a professional wildlife artist.

He soon built an international reputation for detailed and often dramatic paintings of wildlife. With a particular love of the great cats, he became known as “the man who tames tigers with a paintbrush”.  

One man shows of his work have been staged all over the world, from the Fine Art Centre in San Francisco, USA, to his local Watford Museum. Joint exhibitions include numerous shows at the Mall Galleries, Westminster Gallery, Lamont Gallery and Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in London, at Cardiff City Hall, St. Albans Abbey, Gloucester Cathedral and by invitation at Hatfield House. His work was also included in the “Whaletail” exhibition in South Africa.

He works primarily in acrylic on stretched canvas, but he undertakes commissions in all media including oils, watercolour, oil pastels, soft pastels, and pencil. A legacy of his earlier business career is a strong interest in photography and in computers and all things electronic. He is entirely comfortable with computer graphics and developing the public’s interest in computer fine art.

To heighten awareness of conservation issues, he founded ‘PAWS’ - (Paint A Wildlife Subject) an annual competition which for 14 years provided encouragement to wildlife artists in Europe and the Americas as well as in Britain, and launched a number of them on the route to successful artistic careers.

In 1999 he was nominated as a ‘Creative Briton’ in the awards event sponsored by the Prudential.

In 2001, art materials manufacturers, Winsor and Newton, for whom he worked as a demonstrator and materials tester, presented him with a Limited Millennium Edition Silver Watercolour Box, in recognition of his “total commitment, abundant enthusiasm and professional competence”. The award is a source of great pride for him.

He has been a member of the Society of Feline Artists and of the Royal Photographic Society throughout his career and in 2004 he was invited to join the prestigious Chelsea based Langham Sketch Club. For many years a Vice-President of the Westminster based United Society of Artists, he is also closely involved with many local art organisations and community projects.

Roy is an experienced and competent broadcaster. His wildlife art courses and seminars, which he ran from his home, were always well attended, and he was well-known nationally for the  lectures and talks which he gave regularly at major venues such as the Business Design Centre, Olympia and the Birmingham Exhibition Centre.

Having recovered from major surgery to remove a cancerous kidney, he retired from his many teaching and lecturing commitments in 2008 and with more leisure time than he was used to, realised a lifetime ambition to buy a Ferrari. His is a red 360 Spider F1.

His other hobbies include clay-pigeon shooting and he also writes software for Microsoft’s Flight Simulator programmes. Best of all, he likes the company of the animals he paints - in his own back yard or travelling the world to observe them.

A trip to British Columbia, which included a visit with fellow professional wildlife artist Robert Bateman, whose work he has admired for many years, heightened his enthusiasm still further for both painting and conservation.

He has a fascination for every detail of the natural world, which he insists we must strive to understand if we are to have any hope of succeeding in protecting it. He is adamant that we must avoid fanaticism and work in a way which is both practical and possible. He calls this intelligent conservation.

Roy, in conjunction with The Ferrari Centre, is delighted to bring you this very special exhibition.  Here is an opportunity to view the detailed paintings of one of England’s most successful wildlife artists, to meet the man himself and learn about his work and the animals he loves.