People

David Shepherd
President of the British Society of Painters
is known all over the world for his paintings of wildlife, especially elephants. But it was not always like that. His early career was, he says, “a series of disasters.” After failing to be a game warden in Africa, he turned to his second choice, painting - and was turned down as “not worth training” and “having no talent” by the first art school he applied to.
  David owes all his subsequent success to the man who trained him, Robin Goodwin, and to the RAF who flew him all over the world to paint aircraft pictures for them - and commissioned his first elephant painting.
  Now he is regarded as one of the world's leading wildlife and landscape artists but also, because of the enormous debt he says he owes to wildlife for what it has done for him, he is known internationally as a leading conservationist. His paintings have raised over £2,500,000 for this cause through The David Shepherd Conservation Foundation.
  David has been awarded the Order of the British Empire as well as the Dutch Order of the Golden Ask by Prince Bernhard for his services to conservation. He has been made a Member of Honour of the World Wide Fund for Nature and has also been awarded an Hon. Doctorate of Fine Arts by Pratt Institute in New York.
  David has been featured in a BBC documentary of his life, been the
subject of This Is Your Life and has made a series of six wildlife films
for ITV and others. He has
written six books, covering all
aspects of his life, including
wildlife and steam railways.
David is also chairman and
founder of the East Somerset
Railway, a registered charity
raising money for our steam
railway heritage and wildlife.

Leslie Simpson
Director of the British Society of Painters
is a member of a family that proudly claims two
centuries of working in the arts.
  He is the sixth cousin of John Simpson (1782-1847), official Royal Portrait Painter to Queen Dona Maria of Portugal, and widely regarded as one of the leading portrait painters of the early 19th Century.
  Leslie himself first realised he had a talent for art at the age of five. While other pupils were drawing matchstick men, he was drawing proper people in full detail, a talent that was recognised by teachers and his classmates throughout his school career.
  After earning a living as a cartoonist, commercial artist and jobbing painter, Leslie's first large canvas was the life-size crucifixion (8ft by 3ft) - left - painted in 1971. It was the main exhibit in a big art exhibition at the Unity Hall in Wakefield, the first large show organised by Leslie and his wife Margaret.
  This was followed by his first major commission, a large oil painting depicting the last Wakefield City Council in full session, which took a year to complete and now hangs in Wakefield Town Hall.
  In 1981 Leslie and Margaret organised the first Yorkshire Artists Exhibition in the Kings Hall in Ilkley, featuring the 12 leading Yorkshire artists led by David Hockney, together with 100 other artists. From that developed the four major exhibitions held every year in Ilkley.
  As well as organising the exhibitions, Leslie has continued to paint. One of his latest commissions was from Tiger Electronics International for a portrait in oils of the Mona Lisa with the face of the electronic dog Poo-Chi superimposed on it (left). This now takes pride of place in the boardroom of Sega Electronics in Japan after being presented to their chairman.

Pietro Annigoni
First Honorary International Fellow of the British Society of Painters
was born in Milan in 1910. As a child he showed early promise in drawing and his father told him: "You will become a great artist."
  In 1927 he enrolled in the Accademia de Bella Arti and became, he said, a "young man mad about drawing." In 1932 he held his first one man show of paintings and drawings at the Palazzo Ferroni, Florence and quickly became a success.
  He travelled extensively throughout Italy and Europe and after the end of the Second World War he was commissioned by the British Fine Arts Office to sketch the destruction of Florence.
  In 1949 he exhibited several self portraits at the Royal Academy in London where his work causes a stir among artists and art lovers. Seven years later he was commissioned to paint what became his most famous portrait, of the Queen, which received an enormous amount of publicity worldwide and made Annigoni world famous. The portrait itself was used on Commonwealth currency and postage stamps around the world.
  Among his other portraits of the rich

and famous are Margot Fonteyn, Princess Margaret, Prince Philip, The Queen Mother, Princess Elena Corsini, the Maharanee of Jaipur; President John F. Kennedy and Pope John XXIII.
Annigoni died in Florence in 1988 and in 1992 was given a full state funeral interned to his final resting place in San Miniato overlooking his beloved Florence.

Rosella Annigoni, widow of Pietro, with a portrait of herself and (right) a flyer for an exhibition in Florence in 2000.
On the back Annigoni is quoted: "I am convinced that the works of today's avant-garde are the poisoned fruit of a spiritual decadence, with all the consequences that arise from a tragic loss of love for life."

Above: Margaret Simpson and BSP founder member Terence Cuneo with one of his paintings; Keith Clifford (right), the BWS's Director of Ceremonies, in the TV role that has made him a household name - Billy Hardcastle in Last of the Summer Wine; and (below) Terry Fletcher, editor of The Dalesman and Kenneth Emsley, president of the BWS, in the miniatures section of a recent BWS exhibition

British Society
of Painters
President
David Shepherd, OBE, FRSA
Director
Leslie Simpson, FRSA
Chairman
David Daniel, FRSA
President BWS
Kenneth Emsley, MA (Cantab) LLM
Vice-Presidents
Maurice Lee
Johnnie Hamp
First Honorary International Fellow
The Late Pietro Annigoni
Founder members
Terence Cuneo, OBE, CVO
Rowland Hilder, OBE
Hon. Secretary
Margaret Simpson

British Watercolour
Society
Patrons
The Earl and Countess of Harewood
The Hon Mr and Mrs Simon Howard
Baroness Lockwood, D Litt
The Marchioness of Zetland, C St J.
Sir Thomas Ingilby Bt, ARICS
President
Kenneth Emsley, MA (Cantab) LLM
Director
Margaret Simpson
Chairman
David Daniel, FRSA
Vice-President
Russell Forgham
Director of Ceremonies
Keith Clifford
Hon. Celebrity Members
Thelma Barlow, Peter Baldwin, Keith Clifford