Furry jewels of the bush
Item Number: 1
Category: Art
Retail Value: ZAR R18,000.00
Bidding Starts at:
ZAR R5,000.00
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Minimum Bid Increment: ZAR R500
Buyer's Premium: 6.00%
Time Until Opening
5
Days
Days
:
07
Hours
Hours
:
45
Minutes
Minutes
:
10
Seconds
Seconds
Donated By:
William Sonnenberg
Description
The painting was inspired by an unforgettable, hour-long encounter William had with a leopardess. Here is the story in his own words: "As you’re all probably aware, you don’t find leopards; they find you. I’d parked my vehicle under a large acacia one morning and was sitting, enjoying the silence... something made me look up, and there, half hidden by the branches and foliage was this beautiful leopardess. We, me in the vehicle and she in the tree, sat together for over an hour. Eventually she fell asleep... That sighting inspired me to paint this elegant spotted lady in a way that, for me, characterizes what leopards are all about; there, but not always evident." William, who has spent nearly 40 years as a landowner in the bush, describes these creatures as "furry jewels of the bush." His career in advertising has helped him capture this elusive elegance perfectly. The size of the painting is 1m x 2cms x 76cms, acrylic on canvas. Shipping is calculated after the auction and is not included in the price.
Additional Information
Your investment directly supports our mission: To effectively conserve leopards in South Africa by empowering stakeholders through practical scientific recommendations, enabled by formal research, citizen science, novel technologies, and proactive collaboration. Every bid fuels our most critical initiative: the Road Ecology Project, implementing life-saving mitigation measures against road mortality. It also enables the final deployment of the Ingwe Mobile App—the first AI-integrated citizen science tool for faster leopard identification—and helps grow our capacity for evidence-based conservation.