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"Art has always been one of humanity's most powerful tools for connecting people with the natural world — and inspiring them to protect it."
Jeff Whiting was sixteen years old when the Prime Minister of Canada presented one of his sculptures to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on an official state visit. That same year, he entered the World Championship of Wildfowl Carving and placed third — competing against senior professionals who had been at their craft for decades. Two years later, he won. The trajectory of his life was already clear: art, science, and the natural world were not separate pursuits. They were one.
Three decades on, Jeff and his wife Yasmine have built something that no one else has built: Artists for Conservation — the world's leading artist group dedicated to the environment, with 500 member artists from 30 countries, an annual international festival on Grouse Mountain, global expeditions to the Congo, the Arctic, Borneo, Kenya, and Alaska, and a publishing programme that has put conservation art into the hands of tens of thousands of people. They did it from North Vancouver. They did it because they believed that beauty could save things.
I have known Jeff and Yasmine for years. They are the kind of people who make you feel that the world is larger and more worth protecting than you remembered. Every conversation ends with a list of places you need to go, species you need to learn about, and artists you need to follow. They are, in the truest sense, living their best days — and they are doing it in service of something that will outlast all of us.
Jeffrey Gordon Whiting
Wildlife artist. World Champion sculptor. Author of ten books. Documentary filmmaker. Fellow of the Explorer's Club. Business in Vancouver 40-Under-40. Holder of an Honours BSc in Biology and Geology from Carleton University. And, since 1997, the President and founding Chairman of Artists for Conservation International Foundation — a registered charity in Canada and British Columbia.
Jeff's first book — a study of the Common Loon — sold over 10,000 copies across three printings and funded his university education. His second, Owls of North America, required a five-week solo cross-Canada journey visiting wildlife rehabilitation centres in nearly every province. He was inducted as a Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists while still in his twenties — among the youngest ever to receive that honour.
Yasmine — The Other Half of Everything
Behind every great organisation is an operational mind that makes the vision real. Yasmine Whiting is that mind for AFC. As Executive Director, she manages the day-to-day complexity of running a 500-member international charity — coordinating the annual festival on Grouse Mountain, managing the global membership, overseeing the publishing programme, and keeping the expedition calendar moving across multiple continents.
What makes Yasmine remarkable is not just her operational skill but her genuine love for the mission. She is not a manager who happens to work for a conservation charity. She is a conservationist who happens to be a brilliant manager. The two of them together — Jeff's creative and scientific restlessness, Yasmine's organisational precision and warmth — are why AFC has grown from a small Canadian idea into a global movement.
When I spend time with them, what strikes me most is how much they enjoy it. The expeditions, the festivals, the late nights before an opening — they are not grinding through a mission. They are living it. Every year brings a new destination, a new group of artists, a new species to document, a new audience to reach. That is what a best day looks like when you have built your life around something you love.
Following in the Footsteps of the Greats
AFC expeditions do not go to easy places. They go where the story is — and where the art can make a difference.
Jeff's Field Expeditions — A Partial List
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The Festival on Grouse Mountain
Every year, AFC brings its international community of artists together for the Artists for Conservation Festival — held on Grouse Mountain, right in Jeff and Yasmine's backyard. The festival is a multi-day celebration of wildlife art, featuring live painting demonstrations, gallery exhibitions, conservation talks, and the annual AFC International Exhibit of Nature in Art. It is one of the only events in the world where you can watch a world-class wildlife sculptor at work while a Steller's Jay lands on a branch ten feet away.
The festival also anchors AFC's publishing programme. Each year, a hardcover book is produced featuring selected artwork from the exhibit — a permanent record of the world's finest nature art, curated by Jeff and Yasmine and distributed internationally. The 2025 edition is available now at $39.95 USD.
Artists for Conservation 2025 Hardcover
The annual hardcover book featuring selected artwork from the AFC International Exhibit of Nature in Art. A permanent record of the world's finest wildlife and nature art — curated by Jeff and Yasmine Whiting.
Order at artistsforconservation.org →In the Field
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Best Days Ever Scorecard
ARTISTS FOR CONSERVATION
I have watched Jeff and Yasmine build something extraordinary — not in a boardroom, not with venture capital, but one expedition, one painting, one conversation at a time. They went to the Congo to trace the footsteps of the explorer who saved the Mountain Gorilla. They paddled 300 kilometres to the Arctic Ocean to follow a caribou herd. They built a festival on a mountain and invited the world's finest wildlife artists to come and paint. And they did all of it because they genuinely believe that art can change how people feel about the natural world. I believe that too. Best Day Ever.
Connect with Artists for Conservation
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