Holly Lishman: When Art Becomes a Voice for Wildlife Conservation

Some stories are told through words. Others are told through a brushstroke, a canvas and a shared love for the natural world.

For British wildlife artist Holly Lishman, painting has always been about more than capturing the beauty of animals. It is about celebrating the species we share our planet with, raising awareness of the threats they face and inspiring people to play a part in protecting them.

Through her latest collection, Top 10 Africa, Holly has brought together her passion for wildlife and her desire to make a difference. The series features ten oil paintings of endangered African species, each created in partnership with a conservation organisation working to protect that animal.

One of those paintings, Ghosted Plains, celebrates the cheetah and shines a light on the challenges facing the world’s fastest land animal. Holly has also generously donated a hand-embellished canvas print of the artwork to Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) UK, which will be available at our December 2026 charity auction.

But behind the artwork is a story of resilience, rediscovery and a lifelong love for wildlife.

A lifelong love of painting and wildlife

Holly’s connection with art began at a young age. She studied art throughout school, and even then, there was little doubt about her favourite subject. For her A-level portfolio, she painted almost exclusively animals, despite her art teacher encouraging her to explore different themes. Her passion for wildlife always brought her back to the same subject.

However, her journey as an artist took an unexpected turn in 2017. At just 22 years old, Holly fell from a building and sustained a spinal cord injury that left her paralysed from the neck down. She spent six months in hospital learning to adapt to life as a wheelchair user. Initially, she had no movement or feeling in her hands and wasn’t sure whether she would ever be able to draw or paint again. However, while in hospital, Holly came across a box of art supplies on the ward and decided to give painting another try.

Slowly, she began rediscovering something she had always loved.

“Discovering I could still do the thing I’d always loved gave me a completely new appreciation for it, because there had been a time when I thought it was gone,” she explains.

 

That moment marked an important turning point. Holly continued practising, gradually rebuilding her skills and confidence. During the Covid lockdowns, she began taking on pet portrait commissions, painting people’s dogs and developing her technique.

Although she enjoyed this work, her heart remained with wildlife. Eventually, she decided to dedicate her artistic practice to the animals that had inspired her since childhood. Today, Holly is building her career as a professional wildlife artist, with the ambition of making art her full-time profession.

Painting with a purpose: The Top 10 Africa series

For Holly, wildlife has always been a source of fascination. As a child, she was particularly interested in elephants and remembers taking a book about them to school for show and tell, eager to share everything she had learnt. Her love for animals was also encouraged by her grandfather, who supported the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi.

“I’ve always felt that deeply. Not just admiration, but genuine heartbreak that so many species are suffering and disappearing,” she shares.

 

This is what inspired her Top 10 Africa series: a collection of ten oil paintings portraying endangered African species, with each artwork partnered with a conservation organisation dedicated to protecting that animal. The project includes partnerships with organisations such as Save the Rhino International, Painted Dog Conservation, PASA Primates, Grevy’s Zebra Trust and Cheetah Conservation Fund.

Through the series, Holly has also committed to supporting the organisations financially. Twenty per cent of each original painting’s sale and 15% of every limited-edition print sold go directly to the respective conservation charity. But the project has also given Holly an opportunity to learn more about conservation and the people working on the ground.

“When I started, I honestly didn’t know much about how conservation works, or how much time, money and effort it takes to make a real difference,” she says.

One of her biggest discoveries has been the importance of local communities. As Holly explains, protecting endangered species involves much more than addressing poaching and the illegal wildlife trade. Habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and the challenges faced by communities living alongside wildlife all play an important role.

Ghosted Plains: Giving a voice to the cheetah

Among the ten paintings in Holly’s collection, Ghosted Plains holds a particularly important message. The artwork portrays a cheetah, an iconic species recognised around the world for its incredible speed. Yet, as Holly points out, there is much more to their survival than their ability to run. Cheetahs need vast areas of connected habitat to survive, but these landscapes are increasingly threatened by human expansion and fragmentation. The title Ghosted Plains reflects this concern. Holly wanted the name to capture the devastating possibility of losing the landscapes cheetahs depend on, and eventually the animals themselves.

“There’s something devastating about looking at an image of a cheetah and knowing that one day, that might be all we have left,” she explains.

 

Her decision to partner with Cheetah Conservation Fund came from a desire to support an organisation tackling the threats facing cheetahs from multiple angles. Two aspects of CCF’s work particularly stood out to her. The first was our rescue work, especially the efforts to protect cheetahs affected by illegal wildlife trafficking.

The second was our work with farming communities in Namibia, helping people and predators coexist. Through initiatives such as the Future Farmers of Africa programme and our Livestock Guardian Dog programme, CCF works alongside farmers to reduce livestock losses and prevent retaliatory killings of predators. As a lifelong dog lover, Holly was particularly drawn to the livestock guarding dogs and the important role they play in protecting livestock without harming wildlife.

“Rescue saves individual cheetahs, but working alongside communities is what gives the species a future. CCF are proving that people and wildlife can coexist and thrive together.”

Supporting CCF: Ghosted Plains at our December 2026 charity auction

Holly’s connection with CCF has grown throughout the Top 10 Africa project, and we are incredibly grateful for her generosity and support. As well as raising awareness through her artwork, she has kindly donated a hand-embellished canvas print of Ghosted Plains to CCF UK’s upcoming charity auction in December 2026.

This beautiful piece will give supporters the opportunity to own a special artwork while helping raise vital funds for cheetah conservation. We are particularly grateful that Holly has chosen to use her creativity to support our work and help share the story of a species that needs our attention. Her contribution is a wonderful reminder that conservation takes many forms.

INTO THE WILD: Holly’s first solo exhibition

There is another exciting milestone ahead for Holly. From 26 November to 2 December 2026, she will be hosting her first-ever solo exhibition, INTO THE WILD, at Sixteen Gallery in Cheltenham. The exhibition will bring the complete Top 10 Africa series together in one space for the very first time, giving visitors the opportunity to experience all ten paintings and discover the stories behind the endangered species they represent.

Alongside the collection, Holly will also showcase some of her larger wildlife paintings, including a lioness, a giraffe and a herd of wild horses. Importantly, the exhibition has conservation at its heart. Twenty per cent of the sale of each original painting and 15% of every limited-edition print sold will go directly to the conservation charity partnered with that species.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to purchase special Exhibition Edition prints. The first ten prints of each edition are hand-signed and numbered in gold. If you’re in the Cheltenham area, why not visit and discover the collection for yourself?

INTO THE WILD – Exhibition details

• Dates: 26 November – 2 December 2026
• Opening hours: Daily, 10am–5pm
• Location: Sixteen Gallery, 16 Rotunda Terrace, Montpellier Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1SW

Art is the lens. Conservation is the reason.

At Cheetah Conservation Fund, we believe that protecting cheetahs requires people from all walks of life to come together. We want to extend a huge thank you to Holly for her beautiful artwork, her support and her commitment to raising awareness of endangered species.

To discover more of Holly’s work, follow @hollylishmanart on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, or visit hollylishmanart.com.