In His Prime

A young lion leads his family from a muted, shadowy landscape onto the sunny plain. As the lionesses catch up, he stands at attention and scans the horizon for signs of trouble. A dry, hot breeze ruffles his mane but still the young lion stands in the dry grass, unblinking, unmoved and utterly "In His Prime." Artist Simon Combes spent the majority of his adult life painting wildlife in his homeland, Africa. His dynamic animal portraits and sweeping landscapes earned him honors from The Society of Animal Artists, the Pacific Rim Wildlife Art Show and the Florida Wildlife Expo. In the early 1990s, Combes set out to paint a series of the world's largest cats (his favorite subject) for The Greenwich Workshop, a project which eventually resulted in the trade book "Great Cats: Stories and Art from a World Traveller" and a collector's portfolio of limited edition prints.