The Society of Animal Artists formed in the 1950s when a group of artists who liked to meet and paint together at the Bronx Zoo staged their first exhibition at Burr Gallery in New York. This August, the Society of Animal Artists 66th Art & the Animal Exhibitionwill return at the Elliott Museum in Stuart, Florida.
The crowd gathered at the 2025 Society of Animal Artists 65th Art & the Animal Exhibition.
The exhibition will showcase a wide array of species from around the world captured by the society’s international membership. The works range in style, medium, size and technique, but all reflect a love for the natural world and the wildlife depicted.
“For many viewing the exhibition, it is an introduction to the species depicted by the artists,” says Wes Siegrist, executive director of the Society of Animal Artists. “The viewers will find many species completely new to them, as well as portrayed behavior and environment. The catalog contains artists’ statements that delve deeper into why they created their specific work for the exhibition.”
Tiffany Miller Russell, Flight, cut-paper sculpture, 20 x 50 in.
Works from 135 members will be featured, and from their work the jury has noted a shift in how the artists choose to portray animals. “Contemporary artists tend to focus on encounters, which, thanks to highly capable digital cameras, capture them in second-by-second detail. When recreating the encounter, they selectively choose the most dramatic image available in their references,” says Siegrist.
Tiffany Miller Russell, Lookout, cut-paper sculpture, 14 x 14 x 3 in.
“Many prefer employing techniques best observed up close by the viewer. In other words, while the subject is most important, they are also trying to impress the viewer with their technique of rendering the image. Among artists, there is also a fondness for rendering eyes…that element that brings their work to life and grabs the attention of a viewer like no other aspect,” Siegrist explains. “Consciously or not, that choice to engage their audience with animal eyes connects the viewer to the soul of the species. Ultimately, the hope is that the connection fosters caring to promote conservation, and surely the artists with business sense appreciate that it also instills in their viewers the desire to maintain that connection via ownership of the artwork.”
Tiffany Miller Russell,a member of the Society of Animal Artists, focuses in on creating that connection between the viewer, her work and nature. As she brings animals to life through cut-paper sculpture, she focuses on their personality, gesture, story and how the world looks through their point of view.
Diane Ubelhor-Wunderlich, The Wading Pool, watercolor, 18 x 24 in.
“By utilizing the serendipity of materials at hand and reinterpreting the colors and textures of handmade papers, I discover connections between our human world, patterns in nature and the internal process of creating artwork. Exploration is always my biggest driving factor and opens up doors to endless discovery.” —
66th Annual Art & The Animal Exhibition
The Elliott Museum
825 NE Ocean Boulevard, Stuart, FL 34996
www.societyofanimalartists.com
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