Vadim Gorbatov, Russia’s greatest wildlife artist, was born in Moscow in 1940. He started drawing when he was only four, and recalls, “...I started to draw animals. When other kids were playing soccer or flirting with girls, I wandered in the woods, fields and swamps. I had half a binocular, and I knew all the nests of the birds and dens of the mammals in our forest.
He went on to college but soon returned to his fascination with wildlife, where he gained his fame. He travelled everywhere, first through the Soviet Union, then to India and Alaska and many other places.
Birds of Prey and falconry have always fascinated him. ”Hunting with birds of prey has a special place in my mind. I am fascinated with this kind of hunting: it is simply a part of nature’s process ...everything is in the process, not in the result.”