Robert Bateman turned 80 last Monday.

If eighty is really the new fifty, as the eminent wildlife painter from Canada is showing by example, then he is setting a mighty standard for us all.

The truth is that nothing, gauging by Bateman's recent actions, gives any indication he is slowing down.

Fresh off the heels of a successful multi-venue exhibition in Russia, steaming ahead with efforts to build a state-of-the-art environmental learning center at Royal Roads University in Canada, and outspoken as ever about the need to save the planet (most notably expressing his incensed response to the catastrophic British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico), Bateman is a tour de force.

It should be no surprise to Wildlife Art Journal's global readership that in our first few months of existence, we devoted major feature space to Bateman and to his contemporary and colleague David Shepherd .  When you reach the Bateman story and read it, make sure you also watch the video in which Bateman presciently warns about the dangers of drilling for oil in coastal areas and transporting crude through fragile marine ecosystems.

In many ways, Bateman and Shepherd have fought similar battles.  Each man is a national treasure in his own country and each deserves to have his work hanging in Canada's and Britain's finest museums.

Anything less is both wrong-headed and ignorant of the impact that Bateman and Shepherd have asserted as artists, mentors and activists who have achieved extraordinary accomplishments on behalf of the planet—our planet—through sheer will and compassion.

Later this year, in September, the Society of Animal Artists at its 50th anniversary celebration in San Diego, California, will bestow Bateman with its first-ever lifetime achievement award.  

Bob, you are more than deserving.  No visual artist, living or passed, has done more to help educate millions of North Americans about the importance of nature in our lives.  Not one.

Happy Birthday.  We wish you the best and don't stop doing what you're doing.  The world needs you.

Note to readers:  Please consider supporting construction of the Bateman Centre at Royal Roads that aims to blend art with environmental studies.

PS:  Dear National Gallery of Canada:  Bateman deserves to be part of your collection. More than that, he deserves to have a major Bateman retrospective in your hallowed halls while he is still with us.  Stop your petulant stalling.