One of the world’s most celebrated wildlife artists, Robert Bateman was born in Toronto in 1930 and spent much of his youth observing and admiring the wildlife of the Toronto ravines. He was inspired by the Group of Seven to create abstract paintings of nature, but he did not immediately pursue art as a career. Instead, he took a degree in geography at the University of Toronto in 1954, and later studied at the Ontario College of Education. He traveled around the world in a Land Rover in 1957-58, increasing his appreciation of cultural and natural heritage. He married Suzanne Bowerman in 1961, and the couple had three children.