Distinct, quirky and original – three words chosen by the artist Dominique Salm to best describe her work ... and we agree!
Depicting a characterful collection of tigers, zebras, and ostriches, among others, Dominique Salm's original paintings and limited edition prints are highly sought after and have been immensely popular additions to our portfolio.
Because of this, we thought we'd share a little bit about the artist, her inspiration, and her creative process.
Dominique was born in Jamaica in 1972, where she spent her early childhood before relocating to Hampshire.
Citing David Shepherd, Mark Shand, and David Attenborough as influencers, her enthusiasm for conservationism and love of nature and all animals is apparent in the direction that the subject of her artwork has taken.
Having always been passionate about art and wildlife, she completed an illustration degree and then went on to combine her love of both to build a reputation as the internationally successful wildlife artist she is today.
She frequently exhibits in both London and New York, has been shortlisted for the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year, several years in a row and won the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year 2009, World Mammals category.
In 2013, her ostrich painting “Rubbernecking” was chosen for the international Birds in Art exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin. This striking piece is available to purchase on our website as a limited edition print, and would make a fabulous gift this Christmas.
Dominique is fortunate enough to have been able to frequently travel to Kenya where she spends hours studying photographing and drawing her subjects. On a recent trip, having noticed how the elephants vary in shades of red from rolling and spraying themselves in the rich soil out there, she came up with the idea of using the actual earth as a pigment in her paintings to convey this.
Drawing inspiration from the nature and characteristics of the animals she paints, her remarkably naturalistic portraits of her animal subjects are depicted, somewhat unconventionally, in watercolour on a clean white background, which creates a dramatic graphic image, and conveys her unique ability to capture the personality of each animal and impart humour, character and whimsy into her pieces.
"I started painting in watercolour due to not wanting to make a mess in my mother's house when I first started painting! It became my medium of choice, and also my signature as I don't use them in the traditional way.
I have always seen the human side in animals - the way they make you laugh or sympathise with them with an action or an expression.
I paint mainly from my own photos but can sometimes spend hours watching the subject as it's all about capturing that single moment...my love of nature and all animals led me to become a wildlife artist."
To discover more about Dominique Salm and her work, visit her Collier & Dobson collection.
