Donald Greig's wild life bronzes are prized all over the world for their beauty and realism.

It is difficult to pin a label on Donald Greig. Is he gemmologist? A jewellery designer? A sculptor? In fact, he is all of that, and more. Donald Greig is an artist. If the number of times he won his schools arts prize is a fair indication, Donald's talent was already in evidence as a boy. But, because his great love was gemstones (he was an avid collector of agates and amethyst) he knew already that what he wanted to do when he grew up was join his fathers business. And so it was, that after graduating from the Gemmological Institute of America, he returned to South Africa to take his place at Charles Greig Jewellers and as gemstone and diamond buyer.

With his eye for design it did not take long before he began sketching and creating jewellery for the store. Yet, in spite of his success at it - and the enthusiasm with which customers responded to his designs - he did not really think of himself as an artist so much as someone who simply enjoyed the creative side of his business. How often, though, did he find himself wishing that he could have been a goldsmith so that he could use his hands to make the pieces he'd designed? This idea of physically composing the objects, and feeling them take shape under his fingers, was, and remains, very much a part of his artistic sensibility.

It was only about 10 years ago that Donald had the idea to sculpt a little elephant for his children. From his children - Italia Greig, herself a sculptor - he ‘borrowed' some wax. When he had finished his sculpting, he was generally surprised to see how well it turned out. So much better than he had expected, in fact, that he had it cast in silver. The only problem was that he liked it so much that he never gave it to the children.

The next piece was a kingfisher. Once again he was proud enough to have it cast in bronze. Never the less, he still merely thought he had a long run of beginner's luck and didn't take any of it too seriously, preferring to think of his new past time as a particularly satisfying hobby. As a hobbyist, he continued with further pieces until he eventually recognised that he possessed a natural gift.

And so, off he went, to the Lorenzo de Medici School of art in Florence, Italy, to receive formal training and hone his innate skills. Yet, even now, with years of experience and many hundreds of African animals and birds to his credit, Donald still considers his sculpture as a side line. Even though his animals are available and sold at all the Charles Greig stores, as well as game lodges, galleries and boutiques in Britain and the USA, he sculpts because the work fulfils a spiritual - and not a commercial - need. That is why he works at it outside of normal business hours. “I can sculpt where ever I am: on a plane, in bed at home, in a sitting room - it's not an antisocial hobby, my children come and talk to me while I do it.”

Anyone who has seen even one of his bronzes will know that Donald is passionate about the birds and animals he sculpts. In fact, he spends countless hours in the bush studying, photographing and filming them, so that he will really understand the way they move, their mannerisms, their very character. “Because sculpture is 3-dimensional,” he says “you have to know the structure of the animal's body, its bone and muscle formation, and what it looks like from every angle.” In addition, he works from anatomical drawings, skulls, and skins borrowed from the natural history museum.

Donald looks forward to his frequent trips to the Kruger National Park. “It's my favourite place. I escape the city lights and experience closeness to nature. I sit at a water whole watching an animal and try to understand it well enough to be able to express it in bronze.” Later, only after he has processed all this information in his mind, does he achieve his real creative satisfaction as he sets about using his hands to massage the magic of the African felt into his sculptures. He works in a special wax consisting of 12 different materials that he varies according to the consistency he needs. “For a rough sculptured look, I make it malleable; for a piece with lots of detail I make it hard enough to almost carve.” One of the challenges of casting in bronze is that it is monochromatic so, in order to suggest distinctive markings and colours - a cheetah's spots, a zebra's stripes - he has to use texture instead.

On the question of scale Donald has to run the gamut from life-size kudu bulls and crocodiles to small hippo head paperweights. What ever the dimension, the animals are true to their real proportions. And because he always captures their essential spirit, Donald's animals are completely lifelike in their frozen immobility: the sinuousness of a cheetah stretching in the sun, the unconstrained energy of a charging buffalo, the unbearable tension of a leopard stalking its prey.

Small wonder, then, that people respond to the sculptures straight from the heart.

Visit Donald Greig’s website at www.donaldgreig.com.