The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s highest honor…September 10, 2020 Greetings, once more,
In the past, this honor was conferred during the grand opening events in a Master Artist Inauguration ceremony that includes the presentation of the Master Artist Medallion. For me, this Medallionwas scheduled to be presented by Patrick Hogan, my long-time good friend and kindred spirit who joined me on three different ten-day expeditions on foot into the backcountry wilderness of Denali, Alaska, beginning in 1996. Sadly, this year’s grand opening ceremonies have been rightly delayed in order to comply with public health guidelines. That said, I am very pleased that this year’s 45th-annual Birds in Art exhibition will be open to the public from September 12 through November 29, 2020, and will include the very best artistic interpretations of avian art by over 100 artists from around the world. During this year’s Birds in Art exhibition I will have a Master Artist Retrospective exhibition consisting of 15 of my works of art completed in the past ten years that were curated from both Museum and private collections. In addition, the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum will have a separate gallery devoted solely to my drawings that have been selected from their permanent collection. A full color catalogue of all of the artwork in the 45th annual Birds in Art exhibition has been produced and is available from the Museum. It contains an essay about my life and art entitled, Frequent Forays, that was dramatically written by my fellow adventurer, long-time good friend, and eloquent words-smith, Rick McCabe. Catie Anderson and the wonderfully talented staff at the at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum have produced four videos detailing my Master Artist honor and three works of art in my Master Artist Retrospective. Links to these videos, which have just been uploaded to the Museum’s YouTube channel, are: Master Artist Timothy David Mayhew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u_iPWB8t5c Timothy David Mayhew on “Teach the children” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u_iPWB8t5c Timothy David Mayhew on “Right side study of an adult and juvenile sandhill crane” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPMLQpAnrHs Timothy David Mayhew on “Room with a view” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6KzPb_D6mU A preview of this exhibition entitled, Birds in the Spotlight, written by Peter Trippi, Senior Editor of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine, has been published in their September/October 2020 issue and appears on page 141. I have received permission from the staff at Fine Art Connoisseur magazine to send this link to the digital full-edition of this issue, which can also be downloaded as a PDF: https://issuu.com/thomaselmo/docs/facsepoct2020_issu The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s phone number is (715) 845-7010, and is located at: 700 North 12th Street More information, including safety guidelines for visitors, can be found on the Museum’s website at: https://www.lywam.org/exhibition/birds-in-art-2020 If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you. Timothy
The National Museum of Wildlife Art's 33rd Annual Western Visions exhibition…August 20, 2020 Greetings, This has been a very difficult year causing many of us to rethink everything we used to take for granted. In the art world, some important exhibitions had been canceled while others have been modified to become online virtual events. I am very pleased to announce that the upcoming 33rd Annual Western Visions exhibition at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole will proceed, but with necessary modifications for safety concerns. The Museum’s staff incorporated a virtual take on this year’s events for the health of their supporters and the community. Western Visions is the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s largest and longest running fundraiser for this very important cultural institution. For this year’s 33rd Annual Western Visions exhibition and sale the Museum’s staff carefully curated the work of some of the top living artists today. The exhibition will contain more than 200 paintings, sculptures, and drawings by living Artists that will be on display and available for purchase. Instead of sales being handled by lottery or auction as was done in the past, which limited the certainty of obtaining your favorite work of art, in this year’s Western Visions the artwork will be available for immediate purchase at a fixed price. This means that serious art collectors will have a tremendous opportunity acquire artwork by their favorite artists if they act quickly. The artwork will first become available online for purchase on a First Come, First Served basis beginning August 24th and later will be available for purchase in person at the Museum beginning September 12th through October 18th 2020 when the exhibition is open to the public. The link to the First Come First Served online purchase option, which will begin sales at 12 o’clock (noon) Mountain Time zone on Monday, August 24th, is at: https://www.wildlifeartevents.org/shop I have two pieces of art in the Western Visions exhibition this year, an oil painting and its preparatory drawing done in natural black chalk and natural white chalk. I have described them below to provide some insight into how and where they were created. Morning trumpet - (Oil on Belgian linen, 18 x 24 inches) In the fall of 2019 I stayed in Jackson Hole the week after the Western Visions exhibition at the National Museum of Wildlife Art to do field studies of the wildlife and landscapes in the region. I wanted to include some field studies in Yellowstone National Park so I drove up there at 4 am in order to arrive before sunrise. Although my goal was to study the elk herds along the Madison River, I have learned to always be on the lookout for fascinating creatures along my route. By the time I was passing the Old Faithful area it was getting light enough to see the landscape draped in warm predawn colors. Driving along the Firehole River, I spied a lone trumpeter swan standing in the shallows in the fast moving current. The elk would have to wait, because I knew not to pass up such a perfect sighting as an elegant trumpeter swan in such a beautiful setting in warm sunrise lighting. I pulled off the road and spent the next few hours studying the swan patiently going through its morning preening routine drenched in the beauty of the early morning light. I created many drawings as well as small en plein air oil studies of the river and its surrounding landscape. All of these valuable reference materials were used back in the studio to create this oil painting that I named, Morning trumpet, in honor of this experience. There is an image of this painting on my website at: https://www.timothydavidmayhew.com/new-pages/paintings-55.html Left side study of a trumpeter swan standing in water - (Natural black chalk and natural white chalk on warm gray handmade laid paper, 11 x 14 inches) This is one of the field studies I did of a lone trumpeter swan standing in the shallows of the Firehole River at sunrise. It was used as the compositional drawing to prepare for the oil painting, Morning trumpet, described above. This drawing was done in natural black chalk and natural white chalk, which are traditional drawing materials used by old master artists including da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael from the late 14th century through the 19th century. The natural chalks were fully-formed in nature, quarried from the earth, sawn into rod-like shapes with a sharpened end, and traditionally used for drawing by being inserted into a holder made from a hollow reed. For the past four decades I have done extensive research on the traditional drawing materials and techniques of the old masters and over time I have been able to locate specimens of these natural chalks for my own drawings. I have been invited to lecture on the various traditional drawing materials and techniques used by old master artists at several major museums. I have also published a total of five manuscripts on my research into the nature and techniques of these traditional drawing materials. There is an image of this drawing on my website at: https://www.timothydavidmayhew.com/new-pages/drawings-117.html The National Museum of Wildlife Art was founded in 1987 and houses more than 5,000 works of art representing animals from around the world. The Museum’s unsurpassed permanent collection chronicles much of the history of wildlife in art from 2500 B.C. to the present. The Museum received its designation “National Museum of Wildlife Art of the United States” by order of Congress in 2008. The National Museum of Wildlife Art is located at: For more information please call the Museum at, (307) 733-5771, or visit the Museum’s Western Visions website at: https://www.wildlifeartevents.org If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you. Best regards, Timothy
The Woodson Art Museum’s highest honor…March 11, 2020 Greetings, Being a professional artist is sometimes a long and often lonely road.
Occasions sometimes arise when the many years of diligent hard work are rewarded, most importantly in the effect that my artwork has on viewers or by receiving occasional awards, and when they do it makes all the hard work worthwhile. The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum created the internationally-acclaimed Birds in Art exhibition in 1976 with the goal to attract the finest examples of avian artwork from artists around the world. Over the past 45 years the Museum has conferred their highest honor, that of Master Artist, to only 38 artists who have demonstrated a body of work worthy of the title. Past recipients of the title of Master Artist and its associated Master Medallion from the Woodson Art Museum included Robert Bateman, Guy Coheleach, Lars Jonsson, Raymond Harris-Ching, and more. These are the artists who I have looked up to and they have greatly inspired me and guided my career. When I received a phone call from Kathy Kelsey Foley, Director of the Woodson Art Museum, informing me that I would be inducted as their Master Artist at the 45th annual Birds in Art exhibition in 2020, I nearly dropped the phone. In the past I have been fortunate to have received awards for my artwork and I have even received recognition on an academic level for the research I have done on the traditional drawing materials and techniques of the old masters, but the honor of Master Artist from the Woodson Art Museum is on a whole new level. As part of the ceremony surrounding this honor, I will have a solo exhibition of my artwork in conjunction with the Birds in Art exhibition this fall and the Museum is also going to have a concurrent exhibition of my drawings from their permanent collection. Needless to say, my life has gotten very busy, but very wonderful as well. I will send another newsletter in early August with more details about this great honor and its related events. In the mean time, I will keep getting up out of bed long before the sun rises to hike my gear to just the right location to witness and study nature at its finest and keep on perfecting my skills. If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you. Best regards, Timothy
|
No material on this website may be duplicated, borrowed, printed or displayed elsewhere without permission. |
The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum created the internationally-acclaimed Birds in Art exhibition in 1976 with the goal to attract the finest examples of avian artwork from artists around the world. I am greatly honored that his year the Museum has chosen me to receive their highest honor, that of Master Artist. 
Despite the common belief to the contrary, it is not about talent. It is about putting in decades of hard work to perfect one’s skills at drawing, designing a composition, and the complexities of painting. For me, it is also about getting out of bed long before the sun rises to hike my gear to just the right location to witness and study nature at its finest. It takes years, decades even, to be able to capture the subtleties of the quality of light and the unique behaviors of the charismatic megafauna I encounter. 