This August, the Society of Animal Artists is holding its 63rd Annual Exhibition, featuring the artwork of 118 artist members. Taking place in West Virginia’s Stifel Fine Arts Center, the exhibition features wildlife art in a range of styles and mediums, including paintings in oil, acrylic and watercolor, as well as sculpture in bronze, wood and more. Among these is Gerald J. Painter’s Dogtown Denizen, an owl sculpted from walnut burl.
Deborah Brees, Osprey Over Payette Lake, oil on linen, 24 x 24”
Executive director Wes Siegrist adds that visitors can expect to see a broad range of subject matter, from a goldenrod crab spider to an African elephant. And members of the SAA are as diverse as their animal subjects, hailing from across the United States, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Scotland, England, France, Spain and Sweden.
Gerald J. Painter, Dogtown Denizen, walnut burl, 13 x 11 x 4”
“While traditional techniques abound throughout the exhibition, visitors should seek out these unique presentations, [like] Lucrezia Bieler’s Woodcock, [which was] created using small scissors to intricately cut out the composition from a single sheet of black paper,” Siegrist says. “Jennifer Hudson used knives and multiple sheets of paper to create her equally stunning The Visitor, [and] Barbara Banthien chose to go as simple as possible with her painting Chinstrap Penguin to emphasize the stark environment in which the bird lives. Tim Cherry’s stylized Willow Snipper features a rabbit adept at landscape pruning that should leave a smile on every visitor’s face.”
Tim Cherry, Willow Snipper, bronze, 24 x 13 x 9”
Artist Deborah Brees brings an oil titled Osprey Over Payette Lake to this year’s event. “The resort town of McCall, Idaho, is situated on the southern shore of Payette Lake, a glacial remnant whose water is unbelievably blue and inviting. The ospreys nest there and are visible flying around the lake as they hunt fish and raise their young,” says Brees. “In this painting, I wanted to replicate the bird’s eye view, the feeling of focusing on the images up close, in front of you, as well as the amazing feeling of being pulled back into the background scenery miles and miles away from you.”
Elizabeth Pollie, Ring Them Bells, oil, 24 x 24”
Members of the Society of Animals Artists will be in attendance at the reception on Friday, October 13, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The show hangs August 12 to October 28. Once the exhibition closes, the artworks will then travel to the Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum in New Jersey from November 18, 2023, to January 14, 2024; the Dane G. Hansen Memorial Museum in Kansas from March 1 to May 27, 2024; and the Peggy Notebaert Museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences from June 15 to September 2, 2024. —
63rd Annual Exhibition
August 12-October 28, 2023
Stifel Fine Arts Center, 1330 National Road, Wheeling, WV 26003
(423) 799-0925, www.societyofanimalartists.com
Powered by Froala Editor
