Rama Samaraweera
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Rama "Sam" Samaraweera (1926 – 14 October 2021) was a British self-taught artist who lived and worked in Wales. He specialised in painting wildlife and was inspired by a year working as a keeper at Dudley Zoo. He is probably best known for his picture, "Clouded Leopard", a best-seller as a print.
Samaraweera was born in 1926 in Smethwick. He drew animals as a child, encouraged by his father, a doctor from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) who was a GP in Birmingham. He trained as a teacher and he and his wife Sue went to Jamaica where he lectured in art and English literature.[2] After military service, in 1961 Samaraweera took a job at Dudley Zoo as a keeper. He was sacked after a year for spending too much time sketching the animals he was supposed to be looking after.[3][4][5][6]