AN artist from Lyme Regis who paints animals with true passion has unveiled her latest masterpiece to raise funds for charity.

Emma Bowring’s love for animals and passion for wildlife has taken her on yet another adventure following on from her stunning painting of a bull elephant earlier this year. After swapping a career in retail to work in art, Emma continues to capture the beauty of wildlife in stunning works of art – and all for a good cause.

Her latest painting, In the Shaanxi Mountains, captures a giant panda in its natural habitat and is being auctioned off for charity.

Emma and her husband moved to the area 13 years ago and now live just outside Lyme Regis where she runs a gallery, Edwards & Parr.

Emma said: “Pauline Kidner from Secret World came in to our gallery in Lyme Regis last summer and we got chatting about the work they do, and since then I’ve been supporting them with donations from paintings sold at our gallery.

“Every year, they hold a fundraising ball at the Webbington Hotel, Loxton, and this year the theme for the ball on October 1 is ‘A night at the Orient’.

“So I painted a giant panda, and the original oil painting will be auctioned at the ball with all the money raised going to Secret World.”

Emma said: “It is a love of animals that inspires me to paint – rather than a love of painting as such, the whole drive behind it is to use my work wherever I can to raise funds.”

She added: “With my love of wildlife, it was just the natural thing to want to draw; I think you need to draw/paint something that you love to look at.

“It gave me the idea that perhaps I could help wildlife in another way.”

The painting has been signed on the back by zoologist Martin Hughes Games from Springwatch who also presented the BBC series Nature’s Miracle Babies about the plight of the giant panda.

n Anyone interested in owning the painting and helping raise funds for Secret World, can put in a bid before the event and without attending the ball by contacting Pauline Kidner at pauline.kidner@secretworld.org