The 2016 Birds in Art Touring exhibition…November 30th, 2015 Greetings, yet again, I was delighted to learn that my oil painting, Royal flush, has been selected for the upcoming 2016 Birds in Art Tour exhibition. Being invited to be in the prestigious international Birds in Art exhibition at the Woodson Art Museum is a high honor in itself, but to be included in the selection of paintings from this exhibition which will tour several of the country‘s Museums during the following year is an even greater honor. To create the 2016 Birds in Art touring exhibition, the Woodson Art Museum’s personnel have curated 60 of the finest pieces gleaned from the total 123 works of avian art which encompassed the internationally-renowned 40th annual Birds in Art exhibition that was exhibited at the Woodson Art Museum from September 11, 2015 to November 29, 2015 and was seen by over 15,000 people.
The scheduled location and dates for the 2016 Birds in Art touring exhibition are:
If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you. Best regards, Timothy
Morris Graves Museum of Art’s Lustrous Lines: Contemporary Metalpoint Drawing…October 23, 2015 Greetings, I am pleased to announce that my next exhibition entitled, Lustrous Lines: Contemporary Metalpoint Drawing, will be at the Morris Graves Museum of Art from Nov. 21st, 2015 to January 3rd, 2016. The traditional technique of metalpoint drawing involved drawing with a pointed metal stylus cast from a variety of non-ferrous metals on a drawing support specially prepared with a complex formulation. This preparation was designed to make the surface of the drawing support abrasive enough to shear small particles of metal from the stylus, which become embedded on the drawing surface to create marks and lines. Thus, the lines of the drawing are composed of the actual metal of the drawing stylus used. This complex traditional drawing technique predated the discovery and use of the natural chalks, graphite, and many other drawing materials used by the old masters. During the height of this technique in the 14th to 17th centuries the metals used to make the drawing styli in included gold, electrum gold, silver, bronze, copper, and lead-tin alloys. The metalpoint drawing I have in this exhibition is entitled, Left side study of a sandhill crane looking into the water, and was drawn with a platinum stylus on genuine azurite prepared wove paper measuring 11 x 14 inches. This drawing was one of several field studies I did of sandhill cranes at one of their winter refuges in southern New Mexico to prepare for a series of oil paintings. This drawing was itself the preparatory drawing for the oil painting, Just reflecting, oil on Belgian linen, 18 x 24 inches, which is currently in a private collection. Over the past few decades I have gravitated toward using the harder types of metalpoint styli, such as the traditionally-used Campanian bronze or electrum gold alloys, because they maintain their sharpened points longer and are capable of rendering very fine details. Platinum is also a relatively hard non-ferrous metal and I created the platinum styli used to make this drawing from an ingot of fine (99.99% pure) platinum melted in a crucible on my forge and poured into a drawing stylus mold that I carved into a block of volcanic tufa stone. There is an image of this process on my website at the bottom of the page on old master drawing materials at: All of my metalpoint drawings are done on traditional 14th to 17th century formulas for metalpoint grounds, which I create by grinding the various components on a granite slab with a muller and then apply the completed preparation to the drawing support by hand. In order to be able to get a full range of light to dark tonal values from these harder platinum styli I needed to use the most effective traditional metalpoint preparation possible. I discovered the traditional formula used to make this complex metalpoint preparation a couple of decades ago in a translation I did of a handwritten northern European manuscript dated 1620. In 1987, the Humboldt Arts Council [HAC] became the State Local Partner for the California Arts Council and the community representative for the California State Summer School for the Arts Program. In 1996 the Humboldt Arts Council accepted an offer from the City of Eureka to undertake the effort to save the historic 1904 Carnegie Library building, which was destined for demolition. The former Carnegie Library had been a symbol of community pride and local culture for over 100 years. After the successful Carnegie Capital Campaign to raise $1.5 million from the local community, foundations and corporations, the Council began the restoration process in 1999 to convert the historic Carnegie building into a regional art museum and art center. On January 1, 2000 the Humboldt Arts Council and the community celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony to dedicate the Morris Graves Museum of Art for its new “Century of Service” to the community. For more information on the Museum and this upcoming exhibition, the contact information is:
If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you. Best regards, Timothy
The Red Smith Award for Best in Show…September 27, 2015 Greetings, once again,
I am extremely pleased and honored to report that I was awarded the Museum's highest award for this exhibition, the prestigious Red Smith Award for Best in Show. This important award includes a cash prize, a set of Rungius Medals that commemorate the great painter Carl Rungius, and a full page advertisement generously sponsored by and published in Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. Past recipients of the Red Smith Award include such greats as Clark Hulings, Len Chimiel, T. Allen Lawson, Clyde Aspevig, Walter Matia, Jim Morgan, Thomas Quinn, and I am pleased to say by my good friend and mentor the great wildlife artist Bob Kuhn. To someone like me who has extensively researched the artistic materials and techniques of the old masters, receiving this prestigious award is the modern-day equivalent of winning the Gold Medal in one of the great French Salon exhibitions of the 19th century. The Red Smith Award for Best in Show is given by the Museum, in memory of Colonel Richard H. “Red” Smith, honoring the special friendship that he and his wife Jane Griswold Smith had with the noted artist Carl Rungius. The great academically-trained artist Carl Rungius was born in Germany in 1869 and extensively studied and painted the landscapes and wildlife throughout the Rocky Mountain Range in North America. The National Museum of Wildlife Art has an extensive collection of Rungius’ paintings and etchings, which are featured in the Museum’s Rungius Gallery. If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you. Best regards, Timothy
Western Visions magazine cover and feature article…September 5, 2015 Greetings, I am very honored that the recently-released 2015 Western Visions magazine published by the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, features my artwork both on its cover and in an article entitled, “The Scholar: Timothy David Mayhew, Painter” eloquently written by Kristen Rue. The article begins on page 38 of the magazine and the link to the online version is: http://issuu.com/westernvisions/docs/wvmagazine15-hr?e=4936008/15125636 The 28th Annual Western Visions exhibition at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, opens its doors to the public today, September 5, 2015. I will be traveling to Jackson Hole on September 17th for the festivities and events surrounding the sale and for some eagerly-awaited field studies in the surrounding Yellowstone and Tetons regions. I have been studying my topo maps and hiking routes and am planning to use some of this time to continue my series of drawings and paintings of “The Grand”, which celebrates the tallest peak in the Grand Tetons range. 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
The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s prestigious Birds in Art exhibition…August 10, 2015 Greetings, Since 1976, the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum has organized the Birds in Art exhibition as an annual event to present the very best artistic interpretations of birds and their related subject matter. Three simple words – birds in art – took on a life of their own when they became a prestigious Woodson Art Museum exhibition title. Over the years, Birds in Art has grown into what is recognized around the world as the exhibition that sets the standard internationally for avian art. The Museum staff believes that the Birds in Art phenomenon has a lot to do with serendipity and even more to do with the remarkable talents of the artists who present their very best work interpreting birds and their related subject matter and can be credited for the success of Birds in Art. This year’s exhibition celebrates an important anniversary described by the Museum’s personnel as, “Mesmerizing, pleasing, and thought-provoking work by 123 of the world’s most talented artists comprises a befitting tribute to this year’s auspicious milestone – the 40th annual Birds in Art exhibition”. The Birds in Art exhibition’s opening reception will be on Friday, September 11, 2015, and the exhibition will continue through November 29, 2015. The Woodson Art Museum is located at 700 N. 12th Street in Wausau, Wisconsin, and their phone is: 715-845-7010. Further information is available from the Museum’s website: http://www.lywam.org/birds-in-art/ My entry into this prestigious exhibition is entitled “Royal flush” (oil on Belgium linen, 21 x 28 inches). This oil painting, which depicts three royal terns standing in shallow water, is not really about the game of chance but rather the inspiration for its name came from the translucent glowing flush of orange evident in the backlit beaks of these royal terns. To render this subtle translucent glowing effect in an oil painting required very strict control of hue, chroma, and tonal value. I take a very challenging approach to art and do not settle for simply a well rendered subject as the ultimate goal. I strive to explore complex issues of color harmony, design, and composition. Thus, you will find that this painting is also an exploration of the intricate “laws of reflection” the results of which can be seen in nature and were used and taught by the celebrated American artist, Thomas Eakins (1844–1916). Eakins demonstrated how to calculate and depict the complexities of reflections in water with his series of drawings and paintings of champion rowers in their rowing sculls. Additionally, Eakins taught these techniques in the late 19th century at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in his now-famous lectures on linear perspective and the construction of complex reflections in calm and agitated water. If you cannot make it to the exhibition in person to see this painting, there is an image of my oil painting, “Royal flush”, on the ‘home’ page of my website at the URL below. If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you. Best regards, Timothy
The J. Paul Getty Museum…July 28, 2015 Greetings, I will be traveling to the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center in Los Angeles in August to continue work on the Museum’s upcoming exhibition of 19th century French drawings and prints, which is scheduled to open on February 9, 2016 and run through May 15, 2016. For the past two years I have been working as a consultant on traditional drawing materials and techniques for this exhibition by the invitation of Dr. Lee Hendrix, the Museum’s Curator of Drawings. During the upcoming August trip I will be working with the Getty’s video production staff to demonstrate and document some of the unique drawing materials and techniques used in 19th century France in order to produce a video that will accompany the exhibition. In addition, I have been asked to write the chapter on the traditional drawing materials and techniques of 19th century French dessin au fusain, for the book that will accompany the exhibition. The book and the exhibition are both entitled, Noir: The Romance of Black in 19th-Century French Drawings and Prints, and the book will be published by the Getty Press later this year. When this publication is finally available I will send out a newsletter. The J. Paul Getty Museum seeks to inspire curiosity about, and enjoyment and understanding of, the visual arts by collecting, conserving, exhibiting and interpreting works of art of outstanding quality and historical importance. To fulfill this mission, the Museum continues to build its collections through purchase and gifts, and develops programs of exhibitions, publications, scholarly research, public education, and the performing arts that engage our diverse local and international audiences. All of these activities are enhanced by the uniquely evocative architectural and garden settings provided by the Museum's two renowned venues: the Getty Villa in Malibu and the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center in Los Angeles houses European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, and photography from its beginnings to the present, gathered internationally. The website for the J. Paul Getty Museum is: http://www.getty.edu/visit/center If you have any questions or comments I’d love to hear from you. Best regards, Timothy
The National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions exhibition…July 10, 2015 Greetings, once more, Ok, this is big… big enough that I needed to send it out a bit earlier than I intended. I am really looking forward to being in the upcoming 28th annual Western Visions exhibition at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which will be held in September. That said, I am greatly honored this year, because my oil painting was chosen to illustrate a two page advertisement for this exhibition in the July issue of the Fine Art Connoisseur magazine, which is now out on newsstands. But it gets even better, as I will be featured in an artist’s profile article written by the talented, Kirsten Rue, which will be published in the 2015 National Museum of Wildlife Art Western Visions magazine Western Visions routinely draws an international crowd to this critically-acclaimed exhibition 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 the world’s top artists will be included this year. In order to include larger works of art, this year’s Western Vision has pared the number of invited artists down to 100 of the very best from around the world, who are designated as the Wild 100. On Thursday, September 17, 2015 there will be a social hour followed in the evening by the Wild 100 West Artist Party in which patrons have an opportunity to view the art, place bids, and mingle with the artists before the sale occurs. On Friday, September 18, 2015 the doors will open at 5:30 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. The Museum received official designation as the “National Museum of Wildlife Art of the United States” by order of the United States 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. I am planning to couple this important exhibition with some extra time for some serious field studies in the Greater Yellowstone Region and plan to return home with many new drawings and small en plein air oil paintings, valuable references that I use in the studio to create new oil paintings over the coming year. 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: 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
Acquisitions by Harvard University’s Fogg Museum…March 30, 2015 Greetings, once more,
Over the past twenty years the Fogg Museum has acquired a large and growing collection of my drawings, each done using the unique traditional drawing materials and techniques developed and used by European master artists from the 13th-19th centuries. It is a great honor and a comfort to have my drawings expertly cared for and housed in such world renowned museum, where they will long outlive me and be available for future generations to see and study. If you have any questions or comments I’d love to hear from you. Best regards, Timothy
Presentation at Harvard University’s Fogg Museum…February 9, 2015 Greetings, once more,
My presentation will be on Tuesday, March 24th, 2015, and will be a technical presentation geared for the conservators, curators, and art historians of Harvard University’s Art Museums. I am particularly excited because I began a series of annual presentations on my research into the traditional drawing materials and techniques of the European master artists at the Fogg Museum in 1994, but this series of annual presentations was interrupted for the past few years while the Harvard Art Museums, which include the Fogg Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, and Arthur M. Sackler Museum, were undergoing an extensive remodeling project. The Fogg Museum opened in 1895 on the northern edge of Harvard Yard in a modest Beaux-Arts building designed by Richard Morris Hunt, twenty-one years after the President and Fellows of Harvard College appointed Charles Eliot Norton the first professor of art history in America. It was made possible when, in 1891, Mrs. Elizabeth Fogg gave a gift in memory of her husband to build “an Art Museum to be called and known as the William Hayes Fogg Museum of Harvard College.” In 1927, the Fogg Museum moved to its home at 32 Quincy Street. Designed by architects Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch, and Abbott of Boston, the joint art museum and teaching facility was the first purpose-built structure for the specialized training of art scholars, conservators, and museum professionals in North America. With an early collection that consisted largely of plaster casts and photographs, the Fogg Museum is now renowned for its holdings of Western paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photographs, prints, and drawings dating from the Middle Ages to the present. The Harvard Art Museums’ recent renovation and expansion builds on the legacies of these three museums and unites their remarkable collections under one roof for the first time. Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s responsive design preserved the Fogg Museum’s landmark 1927 facility, while transforming the space to accommodate twenty-first-century needs. Since reopening our doors on November 16, 2014, the Harvard Art Museums’ unique place in the museum landscape has been made clear, both architecturally and programmatically. The museums are committed to preserving, documenting, presenting, interpreting, and strengthening the collections and resources in their care. The Harvard Art Museums bring to light the intrinsic power of art and promote critical looking and thinking for students, faculty, and the public. Through research, teaching, professional training, and public education, the museums encourage close study of original works of art, enhance access to the collections, support the production of original scholarship, and foster university-wide collaboration across disciplines. I am also very pleased and honored that over the past twenty years the Fogg Museum has acquired the largest public collection of my drawings. It is very reassuring and comforting that not only my research on the traditional drawing materials and techniques of the masters will live on in the various manuscripts I have published to date, but so too will my drawings that were done with these traditional materials and techniques. Best regards, Timothy
Presentation at the University of Arizona…January, 6, 2015 Greetings on this New Year, I am starting 2015 with a delightful invitation to present my recently published manuscript on the traditional use of natural red chalk by the old master artists to the students and faculty at the University of Arizona’s Materials Science and Engineering Department in Tucson, Arizona. My presentation will be on Monday, January 26th and the topic is Natural red chalk in traditional old master drawings. Of note, over the years the bulk of the scientific studies for my ongoing research into the drawing materials of the old masters including compositional analyses of natural chalks sourced from around the world and field emission scanning electron microscopic imaging of these samples were done at the University of Arizona’s Materials Science and Engineering Department. My presentation will provide their graduate and undergraduate students and faculty with solid examples of how modern scientific studies can provide significant contributions to the field of fine art. The Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Arizona has attracted a wide group of world class individuals to its faculty and has developed a pioneering and wide-ranging curriculum at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Funding from the state, federal government and industry has provided modern facilities and supported research of ever expanding scope and magnitude. As a result, the field of Materials Science and Engineering abounds with scientific challenges critical to a broad variety of applications and is poised to initiate new thrusts in optical materials, biomaterials, tissue engineering, nanotechnology and computational modeling of materials. If you have any questions or comments I’d love to hear from you. Best regards, Timothy
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My entry into this prestigious touring exhibition is entitled “Royal flush” (oil on Belgium linen, 21 x 28 inches). This oil painting, which depicts three royal terns standing in shallow water, is named for the translucent glowing flush of orange evident in the backlit beaks of the terns. To render this subtle translucent glowing effect in an oil painting required very strict control of hue, chroma, and tonal value. This large painting is also an exploration of the intricate “laws of reflection” that were used and taught by the celebrated American artist, Thomas Eakins. Eakins taught and demonstrated how to calculate and depict these reflections at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in the late 19th century in his now-famous lectures on linear perspective and the construction of complex reflections in calm and agitated water. 
I just returned from the 28th annual Western Visions exhibition at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole - followed by a week of invaluable field studies of the landscapes and wildlife within the Teton and Yellowstone areas - with some very important news. 
I have just returned from my lecture on traditional old master natural yellow chalk drawing materials and techniques at Harvard University’s prestigious Fogg Museum and I am honored to announce that they have selected two of my drawings for acquisition.
I am absolutely thrilled about the invitation to return to Harvard University’s Fogg Museum to give a presentation on my research into the historical use and scientific studies of the little known natural yellow chalk that was used in traditional master drawings. 