The very first sculpture I did was a Kudu Bull made in wax bought in London and sculpted in Zimbabwe in 1986. First cast in California, I moved the mold to Montana in 2003. There were 50 in the edition and when it was near to selling out the mold was burned in a Foundry fire in Billings Montana in 2018. That little piece called ‘The Kudu Bull’ had a companion piece about the same size I called Tandala Kubwa (Swahili for Greater Kudu) molded and cast in Bozeman. Tandala Kubwa was sold out this year at the Dallas Safari Club, bought by our good friend and collector Mark Hadley. Knowing that this last single stand-alone Kudu would sell out in due course I realized the need to sculpt another and King of Camouflage was born. I had by now wanted to sculpt this animal in a larger format and hence the size of ‘Camouflage’. My long life-time association with this most iconic animal goes back to my childhood on Mahamara, the cattle ranch where I grew up in Southern Rhodesia. I have hunted this grand animal in 6 different countries and never ever tire of its majesty and its exquisite form.
John Tolmay
Born in Southern Rhodesia in 1943, John Tolmay grew up immersed in the African bush, where an early fascination with wildlife and nature inspired him to begin drawing his observations. After agricultural college in South Africa, he traveled to Europe and the United States, working as a cowboy in Nebraska and New Mexico before returning to Rhodesia in 1966 to ranch.
Tolmay began guiding African hunting safaris in 1974, an experience that gave him an intimate understanding of wildlife, movement, and anatomy - knowledge that would later become fundamental to his work as a sculptor. He completed and sold his first bronze in 1989 and has since devoted himself to capturing the animals and experiences of a lifetime spent in the wild.
A committed conservationist as well as an artist, Tolmay founded Zambia's Nyawa Pilot Project, promoting community-based wildlife management and a sustainable relationship between rural communities and their natural resources.
