Edinburgh exhibition: Celebrities including Alexander McCall Smith donate artwork for animal conservation

Art exhibition at Edinburgh’s Dundas Street Gallery and online auction to raise money for conservation

More than 100 drawings and paintings of wildlife will go on display in Edinburgh as part of an annual UK-wide fund-raising effort for help save animals from extinction.

A number of celebrities have contributed artwork for the cause, including Capital-based author Alexander McCall Smith. The Sketch for Survival exhibition is at the Dundas Street Gallery from Thursday, October 26, until Sunday, October 29. It then switches to to Oxo Tower Gallery in London, before all the artworks are put up for sale in an online auction to aid conservation work.

McCall Smith not only drew a gorilla, but also wrote a poem beneath his sketch. He joins a long list of big names – including Joni Mitchell, Judi Dench, Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley – who have donated art since the first Sketch for Survival exhibition was staged by charity Explorers Against Extinction seven years ago.

Edinburgh professional wildlife artists Carol Barrett also has paintings on display at the exhibition.

He said the drawing was inspired by a visit some years ago to the mountain gorillas in Rwanda. “I shall never forget the moment that we came face to face with these gorillas in thick jungle. That moment was in my mind when I drew the picture and wrote the poem Mountain Gorilla."

The exhibition will also include several paintings by Edinburgh-based professional wildlife artist Carol Barrett, who has spent more than 40 years drawing and painting wild animals and donates all her work to raise money for conservation charities. On show will be a full-sized framed painting “First Introductions” of a lioness and a male lion with cubs; and three smaller, unframed paintings of endangered animals – one of a Grevy's Zebra and two of White Rhinos.

There will also be a selection of wildlife photographs, some of which have been made into a calendar which will be on sale. And there will be jewellery from Africa made out of snare wire, with proceeds going to conservation.

The exhibition is free and open Thursday to Sunday, 10am – 5pm daily except Sunday,when it is open 10am – 3pm. The online auction is already open for bids, but the bidding will enter its final stages as the London exhibition closes on Sunday, November 12.