Roy Keeler was born in 1948 in Zambia and educated in Zimbabwe. For five years after school Roy worked in some of the remotest areas of Zimbabwe, after which he went overseas for a short period before returning to South Africa. Roy returned to the bush to work in a private game lodge in the Timbavati Game Reserve for three years.
Roy then decided to devote himself to his painting. He spent 17 years in the Umbabat Game Reserve, which forms part of the Greater Kruger Park, painting and taking people on guided walking trails in the bush. The animals he paints are those he has come into contact with and he is particularly passionate about elephants.
Roy has exhibited in the Lowveld, Welkom, Durban, Baden and Switzerland as well as at the last three International Wildlife Exhibitions to be held at the Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg. He has paintings hanging in New Zealand, Australia, North America and Europe.