Twenty-five years and counting
By Jon Isaacs
If it hadn’t have been for two agama lizards I might never have met the wildlife artist David Dancey-Wood. That would have meant no collection of fifteen originals, no attendance at exhibitions in venues as diverse as a theatre in Bournemouth, a hospital in Southampton and a plush gallery near Sandhurst in Berkshire. It would also have meant no excitement at the possibility of buying a fantastic representation of a rare or “quirky” species and no conversations linked to conservation and the environment with a like-minded person. All in all, I have a lot to thank those two agamas for, even though at the time I had no idea how the next twenty-five years were going to pan out!
So, how did it all start? Back in 1999 I had recently come home from only my second safari. That one had been to the wilds of Tanzania. I was still in awe of everything I saw and still laughed at the guides standard joke of “Look, a zebra crossing in the middle of the African bush.” The lodge was a simple affair and our rondavel had an ill-fitting door with a huge gap at the base. I therefore shouldn’t have been too surprised to wake up one morning to find a red and blue male agama eyeing me from my bedside table. We both gulped, he seemed slightly more frightened than me and he took off under the door. That agama became my favourite reptile for all time.
Months later, I was ambling down Old Christchurch road in Bournemouth and I passed Lockwood’s gallery. In the window was a framed print of my agama. It was brilliantly drawn, entitled “basking agama”, and reasonably priced. I hurried inside and met a shy young man who was surrounded by exquisite drawings, some prints and some originals, of animals I generally knew about but were far from the standard creatures drawn or painted by well-known professional artists of the time. I managed to have a brief conversation with him, bought the print, admired an original clouded leopard picture which I couldn’t afford and which became the first of his pictures that got away from me, and left the shop feeling very content. Little did I know that purchase of the agama was to lead to an association with David which has brought me considerable pleasure ever since.
Written By Jon Isaacs.