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I find it quite challenging to verbalise why I choose an image for a drawing and this Cheetah coalition captured years ago in the Kalahari is just such an image.

I am an adoring admirer of the cheetah. The smallest of the big cats, they have had to evolve into the fastest mammal on earth, and I think is only surpassed by the Peregrine Falcon in speed. Their lithe bodies, long tails and light frames all contribute to their ability to move at speeds that boggle the mind. A female cheetah will always exist on her own and will raise her young entirely on her own. The males, on the other hand, have to ensure that they keep the populations up but in the meantime they roam the drier areas of Africa defying the odds.

Coalitions are one of the mechanisms they use for this survival. It is a wondrous thing to behold when you are privileged enough to see a coalition take down an animal they should not really be tackling and it is perhaps that strength that drew me to this image especially. Although they look quite relaxed those raised heads and eyes all looking in the same direction point to the fact that they are not relaxed at all. They are ready to move to find food and the distant springbok herd was what was under careful scrutiny at the time.

I also deliberately make use of black and white when portraying these dramatic moments. The absence of colour focuses the eye on the form of the animal. You can examine those spring loaded limbs, see the interplay of light on the spots that one assumes are all just black but then you find that they are actually many shades of black. The long tail that lies carelessly on the ground is an essential tool to keeping the cheetah in balance at such high speeds and enables them to change course suddenly while in pursuit of prey.

It is a tempting thing to want to reach out and touch that beautiful fur coat and to think of these cats as being a docile cat to be petted, but they are in fact, killing machines. Efficient, fast and deadly. I think it is those qualities that attract me most to them and the thought that they are clever enough to stick together, to find a language to communicate and to work towards a greater good.

Sadly, the cheetah is one of Africa's animals on the endangered Cites lists. Their numbers have plummeted in the 20th and now the 21st Century due to habitat loss and human predation. It is my hope that by hanging my artwork on your walls you are able to spread the word that these beautiful creatures need their space in order to survive in a delicately balanced world.