The National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions exhibition and sale…August 17, 2022

Greetings once again,

In honor of the National Museum of Wildlife Art's 35th Anniversary and in celebration of Yellowstone National Park's 150th Anniversary, the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s 2022 Western Visions exhibition and saleis going all out with over 170 outstanding original artworks featuring a wide range of traditional and contemporary artworks. The exhibition will be showcasing both paintings and sculpture and represents an excellent opportunity for both new and established art collectors.

The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, September 10, 2022 and runs through October 2, 2022.  The gala Signature Event and Sale will be on the evening of Thursday, September 15, 2022 and features complimentary hors d'oeuvres, beverages, live musical entertainment, Desert After-Party celebration, and the opportunity to meet many participating artists.  A new live auction component will feature over 30 large works of art during the event on September 15th. In addition, over 140 smaller format works will also be available as an intent to purchase portion of the event.

My painting in this exhibition, The Ploughmen (Oil on Belgian linen, 12 x 16 inches), depicts a group of sanderlings running at the water’s edge to avoid an incoming wave. The sanderling is a small wading bird whose name is based on the Old English word, sand-yrðling, which means sand-ploughman. They are strong, fast runners that perpetually scurry just ahead of arriving and retreating waves, running out as waves retreat to plough their bills into the sand to find tasty bits, then rapidly running to shore when the next wave approaches.

The composition for this painting was based on several of my field studies along the coast in Southern California where I created dozens of drawings of individual sanderlings. I was able to group the sanderlings, selected from various field studies, into a design to create a compositional drawing for this painting entitled, Study of sanderlings running in the surf, drawn in the rare traditional old master drawing materials of natural black chalk and natural white chalk on handmade blue laid paper.

I will be attending the gala Signature Event and Sale in person and I am also looking forward to doing important new field studies following the exhibition, where I will be able to study the charismatic megafauna of the Tetons National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

The proceeds will benefit the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s important mission, to impart knowledge and inspire appreciation of humanity’s relationship with nature through art and education.  More information on the Western Visions exhibition and sale can be found on the Museum’s website at: https://www.wildlifeartevents.org/#agenda

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

Best,

Timothy

Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s Birds in Art exhibition…August 1, 2022

Greetings once more,
Since 1976, the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum has organized Birds in Art annually, seeking to present the very best contemporary artistic interpretations of birds and related subject matter. Artwork for the annual exhibition is selected each spring, and information is shared when finalized as the exhibition is prepared for the fall opening. The exhibition opens to the public on the first Saturday following Labor Day, September 10. 2022.

Majestic yet fragile, birds connect us with the natural world. Heralding each sunrise and gathering at dusk, these harbingers of seasonal and environmental change endlessly fascinate and inspire. All-new work by the world’s most talented artists provides a splendid array of perspectives and insights. Artwork created by 118 artists curated from throughout the world comprises the 47th annual 2022 Birds in Art exhibition.

In this exhibition I will have a large oil painting entitled, Ross’s Rascals, (Oil on Belgian linen, 27 x 36 inches) depicting five swimming Ross’s Geese.

I discovered these delightful Ross’s geese secretively trying to blend in with thousands of snow geese that had migrated south to winter in New Mexico’s Rio Grande Valley. The title of the painting honors their namesake Bernard R. Ross, of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada's Northwest Territories, one of the first Europeans to describe Ross’s geese in their arctic nesting grounds in 1940.

I studied several small groups of Ross’s geese on my trip and, upon return to the studio, I created this composition of five swimming Ross’s geese based on selected preparatory drawings. One of these preparatory drawing was, Right side study of two swimming Ross's geese, which was drawn in natural black chalk and natural white chalk on handmade blue laid paper (11 x 15 inches).

The other preparatory drawing I selected to create this painting’s composition was, Right side study of three swimming Ross's geese, which was drawn in sawn natural graphite and natural white chalk on handmade blue laid paper (11 x 15 inches).

The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, known for its internationally renowned Birds in Art exhibition each fall, offers diverse and ever-changing exhibitions year-round, sculpture garden, Art Park, dynamic programs for all ages and life stages, and a commitment to always-free admission that provides barrier-free access to the visual arts. Exhibitions and programs are supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. One of only two art museums in the country to win a 2017 National Medal, the Woodson Art Museum received the nation’s highest museum honor given for significant and exceptional contributions to its community.

For more information on this exhibition see the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s website at:
https://www.lywam.org/birds-in-art/

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

Timothy

Harvard Art Museums’ Crossroads: Drawing the Dutch Landscape…June 12, 2022 

Greetings once again,

In addition to my work creating oil paintings for my upcoming exhibitions it has been a great honor to consult on an important exhibition at the Harvard Art Museums entitled, Crossroads: Drawing the Dutch Landscape, which opened on May 21st and runs through August 22nd, 2022.

I was first contacted in April 2021 by Susan Anderson, Curatorial Research Associate in the Division of European and American Art at the Harvard Art Museums, who curated the exhibition along with Joanna Sheers Seidenstein, the 2018–22 Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Curatorial Fellow. This exhibition covers landscape drawings from the late 16th century through the early 18th century, by artists working in the Netherlands—then known as the Dutch Republic. My contribution dealt with the nature and use of traditional drawing materials during this time period.

In addition, I contributed several traditional drawing tools from my collection, which I use in my own work. These drawing materials were displayed in a didactic case and included natural black chalk in reed holders, reed pens, and traditional brushes crafted from entire quills stuffed with miniver (squirrel tail hairs). A photo of the didactic display case was sent to me by Susan Anderson and is below.

The quill brushes were noteworthy as they predate the brushes made with metal ferrules or short sections of quill mounted on wooden handles used beginning in the 18th century. Brushes were originally referred to as hair pencils (Latin, penicillus – rod shaped, French, le pinceau) and in the late 1300s Cennini wrote that miniver hair pencils weremade from hairs that were bundled, tied, and inserted into dove, hen, goose, or vulture quills depending on the size of brush needed. The image below shows two brushes from my collection, a goose quill miniver brush and smaller one made from a duck quill.

An excellent illustration of this type of brush as used in the 17th century is in a drawing by Pierre Dumonstier II from the British Museum entitled, The right hand of Artemisia Gentileschi holding a brush, c. 1625, Black and red chalk on paper, 21.9 × 18 cm, seen below. It is noteworthy not only from illustrating how the ‘hair pencil’ was held in the fingertips, but also by the fact that it is made of an entire quill, this one is at least the size of a goose or swan quill, based on how large it is in her hand. Note the gentle curve of the brush handle and the translucent nature of the quill especially near her thumb.

For more information on this exhibition see: https://harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions/5902/crossroads-drawing-the-dutch-landscape

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

Best,

Timothy