Martin Aveling was born in England in July 1982 after his parents (both zoologists) returned from working with orangutans in Indonesia and mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Soon after, Martin and his mother Rosalind were in Kenya en route to join his father Conrad on a new project in southern Sudan when Conrad was kidnapped by Sudanese rebels and held hostage. After a dramatic rescue, plans changed, and the family ended up moving to the Democratic Republic of Congo to start a mountain gorilla conservation project in the Virunga National Park.

It was here that Martin started drawing at a very early age. Surrounded by stunning landscapes and a wealth of interesting fauna and flora, Martin soon developed a passion for the natural world that has persisted in his artwork to this day. Martin’s parents later separated and he moved back to Nairobi with his mother and two younger brothers. Both in Kenya and later in the U.K. (where he studied under sculptor Oliver Barratt), he received awards for his art at every rung on the educational ladder.

After a period of wider travel and some time spent volunteering with a turtle conservation team on the Kenyan coast, Martin also prepared a portfolio for his first exhibition, “Metamorphosis”, held at the Pool Room gallery in Nairobi, in 2001. A sell-out success, other solo exhibitions in both Kenya and the UK have followed. Although Martin also graduated from the University of Bristol in 2004 with an honours degree in Geography, he has built his career subsequently around his primary passion for art. He now works from a London base, combining commissions with preparation of his next exhibition and other creative projects.

Through his paintings, Martin strives to raise the profile of endangered wildlife around the world and to generate support for its conservation. Among his clients are such wildlife enthusiasts as film-maker Alan Root and “Big Cat Diary” specialist Jonathan Scott. Martin travelled to Indonesia in 2008 after receiving an award from the Society of Wildlife Artists, fulfilling a long-lived ambition of seeing orangutans in the wild.

For more recent news, please visit the Aveling Artworks blog.