'Gorilla in our midst' Painting

Paula Wiegmink was born in Zimbabwe and migrated to Perth, Western Australia in 1994. She is now based in Dunsborough, South Western Australia. In 1994, shortly after Paula immigrated to Perth, Western Australia, from South Africa she joined the Canning Arts Group. Paula was invited to exhibit as 'Artist of the Month' and then went on to conduct all media night classes for the next 6 years. Her teaching extended to the RAF retirement Village Club where she conducted art classes for 11 years, as well as private tutoring, workshops, demonstrations and artist in residence. Paula launched the publication of her first book in 2009 titled, ‘Footsteps in Time', a family journey in Africa from 1709 - 2009 Australia. The book launch coincided with her first major solo art exhibition, ‘The Winds of Change’. A South African conservation group invited Paula in 2012, to do a large-scale painting of a rhino on ‘World Rhino Day’. WESSA (Wildlife and Environment Society of Southern Africa) offered their stand as a venue during the ‘Sunday Tribune Garden and Home Show’ at the show-grounds, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Before leaving Australia for South Africa she decided to do a preparatory piece and her painting titled, ‘Tears of the rhino’ was born. This confronting image of a rhino crying tears of blood was in the future to grow a voice of its own. In 2014, her painting ‘To the point’ of an African pale chanting goshawk was shortlisted for exhibition with the ‘David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year’ in London,UK. Meeting David was the highlight of her trip. Paula was approached by Duke Ingram and Rubin Besureis from London, UK, in 2015, who asked for permission to use the image of ‘Tears of the rhino’ as the face of the RAGES One. Fight. Unite. SAY NO poster awareness campaign for endangered species. The poster has been signed by influential high profile people from all over the world such as; Dr Jane Goodall, Sir David Attenborough, Noam Chomsky, Ricky Gervais and Brian May among many others. One.Fight.Unite Paula is the official artist and active member of the campaign which launched their latest campaign in 2023. This campaign supports Betsy beagle Ambassador for the science-based campaign For Life On Earth (FLOE). In 2015, CEO Graeme Stevenson invited Paula to appear on the television art program ‘Put Some Colour in Your Life’ featuring her re-creating her painting ‘Tears of the rhino’. The CIYL series has now gone global.