John Banovich began sketching images of wildlife while growing up in the copper-mining town of Butte, Montana. As a youth, he painted animals on antlers and fashioned them into bolo ties, earrings and belt buckles. These were inspired by the elk, deer, and other wild animals that his father hunted. At the age of ten, he sold his first oil.

In 1982, Banovich entered the University of Montana, intending to double major in zoology and art. However, when he discovered that abstraction was featured primarily in his art classes, he left the school and moved to Seattle. He received a degree from the Art Institute of Seattle in graphic design in 1987. In the late 1980's capitalizing on years of competitive body building and power lifting. Banovich began working as a personal trainer and fitness expert.

It was nonetheless at this time that he renewed his interest in wildlife and again began to paint. In 1993, as a virtual unknown his miniature oil painting of two lionesses won the Best of the Show in Seattle's Pacific Rim Wildlife Art Show. After tremendous press coverage and signing with a publisher he found the confidence to pursue art full-time. Selling his training business, he embarked on a safari to the Okavango in Botswana and fell in love with Africa 's wildness.

"Africa moved me beyond words. I wanted to soak it up - every last drop. Its enormous diversity, extreme beasts and ancient rhythms. It ignited a fire in my soul and I knew I would never be the same".

Banovich approaches his work like a film director arranging a set in order to express the emotion that underlies the surface appearances. "What's most important is not what you put in, but what you leave out. To me less is more." Instead of painting things, he paints the essence of things. Banovich has had the privilege of studying wildlife around the globe often-spending months each year in the world's wildest places.

"Today we are living during an extraordinary time. Poised between the old world and the new. The human and animal conflict is raging on and now escalating to the point where the decisions we make today will seal the fate of wildlife for generations to come."

Over the years Banovich has worked with a variety of organizations, raising thousands of dollars for conservation and humanitarians causes. This passionate artist hopes that in some way his art will inspire us to protect our wildlife and ensuring its survival.

He is an award-winning member of the Society of Animal and his work is published by Banovich Fine Art Editions. He currently lives and works outside of Livingston, Montana in the beautiful Paradise Valley.