Artysta maluje dwa ostatnie nosorożce białe północne

**VIDEO AVAILABLE: CONTACT INFO@COVERMG.COM TO RECEIVE** British artist John Dyer has completed a remarkable and heartbreaking project - painting the last two surviving Northern White Rhinos. The artist, who is from Cornwall and acts as an artist in residence at the Eden Project, travelled to Kenya at the end of February until the beginning of March to paint the majestic creatures. The trip came almost exactly five years after Sudan, the last male Northern White Rhino, died in March 2018. As a result of his death only two of the rhinos, Najin and Fatu, remain - making the species functionally extinct. The pair are living out their days at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Speaking about how moving it was to paint the last two rhinos, John says: “This was the most profound experience of my life. To have the privilege to meet and paint the last of a species is humbling, devastating and uplifting all at the same time. It was a great joy for me to have exclusive access to realise my dream and to raise awareness around this extinction event, but the fact that is is a subject to highlight is a he sadness.” He adds: “I will be one of the last artists to be able to paint the Northern White Rhino from life, in just a few short years the species will be extinct and consigned to picture books and websites. It fills my heart with sorrow and shame that our species continues to erase noble and majestic species like the rhino and to devastate ecosystems on a continuous basis and we must all stand up to be the change.” John founded his Last Chance to Paint project after Sudan’s death in 2018. The not for profit raises awareness of environmental issues by engaging school kids in the arts so they create personal connections to the natural world, tribal groups and new cultures. When travelling in the field, John uses the latest satellite technology to enable children and schools to ’travel’ with the artist and to receive a daily video and blog that can form the bases of a nature-based art class. Although he has visited other habitats we are losing, such as the Amazon Rainforest, John’s trip to Kenya has perhaps been his most heartbreaking - but he hopes its demise will spur changes that will save other species from extinction. “The loss of the northern white rhino has to be a last wake up call, it has to make a difference for the conservation of other species, habitats and the understanding of tribal groups and culture too,” he explains. “If it doesn’t then this event is just a tragedy. If it can make a difference then I feel we can celebrate the northern white rhino for their noble sacrifice that awakened the world to what we are doing. I hope when the last northern white rhino passes away and the species is lost for ever that we have changed and that we have used their story to rewrite our planet’s future.” The rhinos themselves were a difficult subject to capture with paint - as John had to take care not to disturb them. “Painting the rhinos was a challenging experience as they are large animals and it is a delicate process of not alarming them or getting too close and staying with them,” he explains. “It was the most challenging painting I have embarked on but I was determined. I set off with my portable easel, a canvas and just four tubes of paint so I could move very quickly and make sure nothing was dropped to endanger the rhinos.” Schools are invited from all over the world to get involved in Last Chance To Paint. It is free to access and supported with the expert knowledge of the Eden Project, where John Dyer is the long standing artist in residence, and Born Free who partner with him to deliver the ground breaking project. Schools in 32 countries are already engaged and unique and rich resources are made available online. The project has free downloaded teaching resources for each expedition from TES.com John hopes his art, and children’s engagement with nature through their own paintings, will help the next generation learn that we all need to take more care in conserving our world - and that as a result more specious won’t go the way of the Northern White Rhino and be on course to die out. “I hope that by highlighting the plight of the last two northern white rhino like this it will really encourage young people to all create a painting too and wake up the world,” he muses. “When you paint you invest time, and that pause in your life allows your brain to really start to connect, think, understand, love and then hopefully to make a decision to take personal steps to limit the damage to our world. If we can get young people globally engaged in art and the environment we can make a huge difference to thinking as this goes beyond science and connects them to the subject for life.” The project's website is LastChanceToPaint.com. Where: Kenya When: 08 Mar 2023 Credit: JohnDyerGallery.com/Ol Pejeta Conservancy/Born Free Foundation/Cover Images **EDITORIAL USE ONLY. MATERIALS ONLY TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH EDITORIAL STORY. THE USE OF THESE MATERIALS FOR ADVERTISING, MARKETING OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL PURPOSE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. MATERIAL COPYRIGHT REMAINS WITH STATED SUPPLIER.**