Wildlife artist gored to death

2004-12-16 07:58

London - A British wildlife artist who made a career of depicting Africa's fauna has been gored to death by a buffalo in Kenya, his family said on Wednesday.

Simon Combes, 64, was out on an evening walk in a reserve of the Great Rift Valley with his wife Kat and their friend, cheetah expert Mary Wykstra, when attacked.

"It was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," his daughter Cindy, 36, said, describing the area as a place Combes had grown up in and knew intimately.

The attack only lasted some 10 seconds but "seemed like a lifetime", until the two women threw things at the buffalo and scared it off, she said.

Combes moved to Kenya from England five years ago and often worked for animal conservation groups, his daughter said.

In a 30-year career, Combes won fame for creating some of the world's best painting of wildlife, including close-up sketches of Bengal tigers in India and even a painting of an African buffalo similar to the one that killed him.

He was named "Artist of the Year" for the 1994 Pacific Rim Wildlife Art Show.

His first wife, Susie Combes, said an air ambulance took two hours to reach the site of the attack, and that Combes died at the scene.

Combes, who lived on a farm on the Soyasambu Estate in Kenya, has a 33-year-old son, Guy, who also lives in the east African country and works as an artist.

Combes was born in Britain but moved to Kenya with his parents and brother at the age of five. He moved back to England in 1978, according to media reports.

- AFP