B E
A few years ago she was named ‘UK Personal
Assistant of the Year’ and has since spoken about her work at international conferences in London and Dubai. The judging panel were impressed with the diversity of Anna-Louise's work, which includes organizing Pollyanna's painting expeditions.
Anna-Louise has had to arrange accommodation in a log cabin in the forests of Siberia, transport into the largest desert in the world, and even arrange access to the world’s only yeti reserve – which is also home to the less mythical tiger and snow leopard.
“Each expedition creates it’s own set of challenges in the planning stages” Anna-Louise commented “It is still quite difficult to obtain permits to work in protected areas of countries like China and Russia – there is endless form filling and paperwork – and no guarantees that you will be able to travel freely when you arrive.”
Anna-Louise begins organizing trips up to a year in advance seeking advice and permission from a range of biologists, governments and conservation agencies for them to travel into wilderness areas. Sometimes they are able to accompany wildlife experts or conservationists in the field – working with anti- poaching rangers in India, or wildlife vets in North America.
Soaking up rays in the desert!
A candid moment with Sir Canine!
Experiencing an animal’s wild environment is crucial for Pollyanna’s understanding of it, so that she can paint its behavior and habitat accurately – even if this means some personal discomfort. Traveling across the ice above the arctic circle she camped on the in tents and igloos in temperatures as low as 40° while searching for wild polar bears. “The extreme low temperatures made sketching very difficult – obviously I couldn’t use any watercolors as they were frozen solid – and I could only take my three layers of gloves off for a few minutes at a time to create quick sketches.”
In complete contrast an expedition into the central American Rain Forests to paint jaguars, margays and ocelots found her dealing with 98% humidity and battling 30,000 species of insects – “I think I was bitten by 29,999 of them” she says. “The first night camping I found a scorpion in my camp bed. I would empty my shoes each morning and be fascinated by the variety of insect life pouring out of them.
A sneaky visitor...
And we found tarantulas in the shower block – they like to curl up in the folds of your bath towel. There is nothing worse than coming out of the shower dripping wet, grabbing your towel and finding a hairy leg coming round it.”
And his arachnid friend!
INSPIRATION
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108