Art for heart’s sake – an auction of love and protection

It was a huge privilege to spend a perfect summer’s evening at the Nature in Art Museum in Gloucestershire on 21 July..

Gary Hodges, centre, with EIA co-founders Dave Currey and Jennifer Lonsdale

EIA’s kind, generous friend and supporter Gary Hodges once again used his wonderful drawings to raise money for EIA and five other charities via the exhibition Love & Protection.

We enjoyed a very special private view and reception, followed by an exciting live auction of 15 specially embellished prints. Embellishment takes thousands of new pencil strokes making each print unique, bridging the gap perfectly between an original drawing and a print. All were personally signed by the artist and co-signed by Virginia McKenna OBE and Rula Lenska to make them even more collectable

Gary’s illustration Friends

Our enthusiastic auctioneer, BBC TVs award-winning James Lewis, ensured that £20,700 was raised on the night. Most people would be pleased with such a result but Gary did even more, hosting an online auction which sold 50 embellished prints to raise £20,060 more for his charities.

In addition he has produced a stunning book, Love & Protection, which can be purchased via his website.

Gary has a fundamental love for wildlife and is a remarkable wildlife artist. You can see the soul of the animals in his drawings and I never tire of looking at them. He has always insisted he could not draw wildlife without giving something back, which is why he supports wildlife and other charities including us.

Supporting EIA since it was founded in 1984, Gary has made a massive contribution to the success of our campaigns. We thank him sincerely for all he does to help us achieve our goals in protecting wildlife and the environment –we cannot do our work without the support of people such as Gary.