Museum of Fine Arts, Boston…September 4, 2012

Greetings, once again,

I am very pleased to announce that I have been invited to give a lecture at the prestigious Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The topic will be my research on the traditional natural white chalks that were used as drawing materials by the great European old masters from the 1300s to the late 1800s. This presentation is scheduled for October 3rd, 2012, and will cover the history, geology, chemical composition, sources, production, and physical characteristics of the natural white chalks that were used as traditional old master drawing materials. To accompany the lecture, several of my own drawings will be on display in order to illustrate traditional old master drawing techniques and the variety of uses associated with these unique natural drawing materials.

This is indeed a great honor for me as Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is one of the most comprehensive art museums in the world, and houses a collection of over 450,000 works of art. The Museum aims for the highest standards of quality through its exhibitions, programs, research and publications. The Museum holds its extensive collections of fine art in trust for future generations, and assumes conservation as a primary responsibility which requires constant attention to providing a proper environment for works of art and artifacts. My research findings into the nature of these traditional drawing materials used by the old masters adds to the existing knowledge base of information concerning the physical and chemical characteristics of these materials and will be of significant benefit in understanding and determining their conservation needs.

During my visit, I am also looking forward to being able to spend some quality time in the Museum’s archives where I will be able to study their large collection of old master drawings. This first-hand study of the drawings of the old masters has always been an invaluable and rewarding learning experience for me and I greatly look forward to every opportunity I am offered.

If you have any questions, comments, I’d love to hear from you.

Best regards,

Timothy

National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions exhibition…August 13, 2012

Greetings, once more,

I am greatly looking forward to my next exhibition, which will be the upcoming National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions exhibition.  The Western Visions exhibition includes a wide variety of events at the Museum’s award-winning facility to ensure that there is something for every artistic palate, and is one of the signature events of the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival. 

The Western Visions exhibition routinely draws an international crowd to this critically-acclaimed gathering and the Museum is a major hub for art lovers, wildlife and outdoor enthusiasts, and serious art collectors. More than 200 paintings and sculptures by more than 150 of the world’s top artists will be on display and available for purchase. That said, truly spectacular events are scheduled for this year’s Western Visions because it marks the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s 25th anniversary.

To commemorate the Museum’s 25th anniversary, sculptor Richard Loffler’s heroic four-year effort to create the monumental sculpture, Buffalo Trails, will be unveiled on the Museum’s new sculpture trail on the morning of Thursday, September 13, 2012. The Museum’s three-quarter-mile Sculpture Trail was completed in 2012 and was designed by the award-winning landscape architect, Walter Hood. This ceremony will be followed in the evening by the Wild West Artist Party in which patrons have an opportunity to view the art, place bids, and mingle with the artists before the big sale. On Friday, September 14, 2012 the doors will open at 3:30 pm for an evening of refreshments and beverages with the final opportunity to bid prior to the drawing that determines who is going home with a beautiful new work of art.

The National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was founded in 1987 to enrich international appreciation and knowledge of fine art. In 2010 the Museum received official designation as the “National Museum of Wildlife Art of the United States” by order of Congress. The museum has an internationally acclaimed collection of over 5,000 catalogued items and they strive to inspire public appreciation of fine art, wildlife, and humanity's relationship with nature with their collections, exhibitions, research, educational programs, and publications. Nestled into the hillside, the Museum’s stunning building overlooks the 25,000-acre National Elk Refuge and is en route to the Grand Tetons National Park and Yellowstone National Park. There is a seamless connection between the museum, its mission, abundant wildlife subject matter, and its proximity to pristine wilderness location. The Greater Yellowstone Region is one of the few remaining areas of the United States where native wildlife still roam abundantly and free.

This exhibition is one of the highlights of my year as I can combine a prestigious nationally-recognized exhibition of fine art with the opportunity for invaluable field studies in the Greater Yellowstone Region. I always end up putting in very long and grueling days while I am there, getting up each day before dawn in order to trek deep into the backcountry to study the charismatic megafauna in their natural environment. After a long day of sketching and studying these fascinating creatures, by late afternoon I need to hike out in time to get cleaned up in order to attend the important Western Visions exhibition events at the museum where I look forward to meeting some incredible and knowledgeable art collectors. The next day will find me repeating the same schedule of very long days, actually a rather grueling schedule but it keeps my juices flowing and I love it.

The National Museum of Wildlife Art is located at 2820 Rungius Road in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. For more information on Western Visions please contact the Museum at 800-313-9553, or visit the Western Visions’ website at:

http://www.westernvisions.org

If you are interested in attending the Western Visions exhibition in person, please register before Wednesday, September 5, to ensure your place at these consistently sold-out evening events.

If you have any questions, comments, or if you would like to know what artwork I will have in the exhibition, I’d love to hear from you.

Best regards,

Timothy

Laumeister Fine Art Exhibition at the Bennington Center for the Arts…July 21, 2012

Greetings,

I am pleased to announce that I have been selected for the fourth annual Laumeister Fine Art Exhibition at the Bennington Center for the Arts. The dates of the exhibition will be August 11 - September 23, 2012.

I consider this to be a great honor to have been invited, as the artwork for this exhibition was hand-selected by Scott Christensen who is considered one of the great masters of landscape painting.

The painting I will have in this exhibition is entitled, Dinner and a show (Oil on Belgian linen, 24 x 32 inches) and depicts the interesting behavior three Royal terns that I studied on the Pacific coast this past winter. An image of this painting can be viewed on the home page of my website at the URL below.

The Bennington Center for the Arts has the reputation of a venue that exhibits only world-class art by many of the finest representational artists working today in an elegant, state-of-the-art facility. The Bennington was founded by Bruce Laumeister and Elizabeth Small in 1994 and was initially based on their impressive collection of Southwestern artwork. The permanent collection has grown to include works by prestigious artists such as Eric Sloan, Manfred Schatz, Carl Brenders, Bob Kuhn, Richard Schmidt and many others.

The Bennington Center for the Arts located at 44 Gypsy Lane in Bennington, Vermont.

For further information call (802) 442-7158 or visit the Bennington Center for the Art’s website at:

www.TheBennington.org

If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you.

Best regards,

Timothy

Second manuscript for the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation…February 27, 2012.

Greetings, once more,

I am very pleased to announce that the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation [JAIC] has just accepted a second manuscript for publication entitled, Steatite and calcite natural white chalks in traditional old master drawings. This manuscript is based on over 20 years of research into the nature of the drawing materials and techniques of the old masters. It was written by myself, along with my colleagues, Supapan Seraphin and Margo Ellis, of the University of Arizona. This manuscript will serve as a companion piece to the first manuscript, Natural black chalk in old master drawings, which was previously published by JAIC in their fall/winter 2010 issue. 

The natural white chalks were highly valued drawing materials that for more than four centuries were quarried from the earth and sawn into sticks suitable for use in drawings by the European old master artists. They were widely used by artists such as da Vinci, Raphael, Rubens, Watteau, and numerous others. Their role was to heighten the effect of light in drawings that were done in natural black chalk or natural red chalk. However, the use of the natural white chalks had been lost to the artistic community when they were replaced by manufactured artificial chalks beginning in the early 1800s. Thus, information has become scarce concerning their geology, chemical composition, methods of quarrying, how they were processed, and the traditional techniques by which they were used for drawing purposes. The research detailed in this manuscript fills in these knowledge gaps for these beautiful and historically important traditional drawing materials.

This manuscript is greatly strengthened by several invaluable field emission scanning electron microscopic images and chemical compositional analyses, which were done on the natural white chalk specimens from my own collection, by my co-authors at the University of Arizona’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. In addition, it includes optical microscopic images done by Penley Knipe, the Philip and Lynn Straus Conservator of Works of Art on Paper, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums.

I consider the publication of this new manuscript by the prestigious Journal of the American Institute for Conservation to be an extremely high honor as it is an internationally renowned and respected major periodical dealing with the conservation of historic and cultural works. The journal’s parent organization, the American Institute for Conservation [AIC]is the largest conservation membership organization in the United States, and counts among its more than 3000 members, the majority of which are professional conservators, conservation educators, and conservation scientists worldwide.

The Journal of the American Institute for Conservation [JAIC] is the primary vehicle for the publication of peer-reviewed technical studies, research papers, treatment case studies, ethics and standards, as well as discussions relating to the broad field of conservation and preservation of historic and cultural works. Subscribers to the JAIC include AIC members, both individuals and institutions, as well as major museums, libraries, and universities throughout the world.

Keep in mind that it will be several months before this accepted manuscript undergoes its final editing and appears in print, but when it does, I will be sure to send out another newsletter to spread the word.

If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Best regards,

Timothy