I was commissioned by the CEO of Wildlife Partners to sculpt a Grevy’s Zebra – an undertaking that soon revealed itself to be one of the greatest challenges of my career. While I can recognize a male Burchell’s Zebra from two hundred yards, the Grevy’s is a far more complex and elusive subject. With its refined anatomy, long slender nose, and delicate mouth, it demanded months of work, including several complete restarts, before I was satisfied that I had captured its essence.
But the greatest challenge lay not in the form, but in the stripes. How could one honor the stark beauty of black and white in bronze? My patinair, Jimmy Hill, developed a method I believe has never been tried before: first turning the bronze entirely black with ferric oxide, then applying a layer of white oxide over it. Once cooled, the white was carefully removed from the raised stripes, revealing the striking pattern you see here.
The Grevy’s Zebra is not only Africa’s rarest zebra, it is also one of its most endangered species, found only in small, fragile populations in northern Kenya and Ethiopia. Few travelers will ever see one in the wild, and fewer still will encounter it in bronze. This piece therefore represents something truly uncommon – both in subject matter and in technique.
This commission also reflects a shared philosophy. At the core of Wildlife Partners is a commitment to conserving rare wildlife from around the world, with a deep emphasis on Africa. My own values are rooted in conservation through hunting and art, using sculpture to immortalize the very animals we seek to protect. In this way, Wildlife Partners and I are natural allies: they conserve the living animal, while I preserve its spirit in bronze. Together, both the Grevy’s Zebra in the wild and the one captured here in sculpture become part of the same story of conservation.
For the collector of rare African wildlife art, this Grevy’s Zebra stands as both a tribute to one of the continent’s most endangered animals and a testament to the art of pushing bronze to its limits.
