Lorraine Randall

My name is Lorraine Randall and I am originally from Zimbabwe. I am a wildlife artist that paints in oils, my favourite medium. My family and I relocated to Portugal in 2017 as Zimbabwe was no longer safe for us. I have always been very passionate about art. I started as a child doing pencil drawings. I decided to try water colours and did a few pieces. I then moved onto doing animals and portraits of people in pastels. I won the Flame Lily National Art competition in Zimbabwe at the age of 15.  But, I always wanted to learn more and try different mediums, always pushing to better myself. Some of my art pieces, have taken me nothing less than 100 hours to paint. Oil painting takes a lot of time, patience and dedication to complete just one painting.

As a child I would sit and watch my mother painting in oils. I was determined to learn how to paint like she did. My Mom was an incredible oils artist and she taught me the basics of painting in oils, and I still study her work to this day, to pick up her techniques. I have not looked back since. I have been painting in oils for 27 odd years now and I love to focus on photo realism. For me I find it very challenging and exciting to bring an animal to life, just the way you would see it, if it was in the bush or jungle. As I am from Africa I have been up close and personal with many of the animals that I paint. Therefore, I try and capture the very essence of the bird, big cat or even elephant.  

We had a holiday home in the wild African bush in Kariba and elephants would come and drink out of our swimming pool. Sometimes even a hippo or two would graze the grass on our front lawn. At night we would often be serenaded by the roar of lions in the distance, or the sounds of cheeky laughing hyenas….. and this explains why I love to paint wildlife.