Vic Guhrs

Vic Guhrs is an artist and writer who takes his inspiration from the natural world, the mysteries of wilderness, and the uncharted no man's land of the soul where man and animals meet.

 

Born in Germany, he came to Africa at the age of twenty-two in search of a life in remote places among wild animals. After completing his art studies in Johannesburg, he moved to Zambia’s Luangwa Valley, where he spent the next twenty years observing, sketching, and painting, and learning the ways of the wild.

Twenty years in a remote bush camp have left an indelible mark on his sensibilities as a painter and writer. “If you live among wild animals, you can’t help being made aware of an ancient connection between us. In our long history on this planet our paths converged in more ways than we care to admit. The biological kinship is obvious: they are made of the same cellular structures, with blood and bones and brains, and they breathe the same air and eat the same food.

But there’s a spiritual connection, too; a common soul that binds us together on a profound and fundamental level; the animal spirit still lives in all of us.

His art – both painting and writing – reflects the insight Guhrs has gained into the mysteries of this hidden bond. Not content to portray the superficial appearance of wild animals, he tries to shed light on those elusive moments, both in nature and in our dreams, where the barriers that separate us are dissolved.