Saturday, September 01, 2007

The National Museum of Wildlife Art

After travelling through Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks we stayed in Jackson Hole. This was a place I had marked on the map because it is the home of the National Museum of Wildlife Art which is a place I had long been wanting to visit.

However Jackson itself was a really interesting place to stay, many of the shops displaying items of historical interest. One of the things I remember is that in the 1920's one of the first all women town councils was elected. I wonder why that stuck in my mind.

The town itself has antler arches made from the fallen antlers of the Elk that overwinter at the Nation Elk Refuge. The antlers are collected from the refuge each spring by the local boy scouts and auctioned off in May, apart from the ones donated to maintain the arches.
The Museum itself is just outside Jackson Hole right across the interstate from the National Elk refuge.
In the winter the refuge is home to up to 10,000 Elk , there they get supplementary feeding for two to three months before returning to the higher pastures in the spring.
The Museum is home to an internationally acclaimed collection of fine art paintings, sculpture and photography devoted to wildlife.
Have a look at the website for more information.

The 'meeters and greeters' were both very welcoming and extremely knowledgeable which made our visit even better.

The one thing that struck me on first seeing the original work of artists like Robert Bateman was the scale they work on. Bateman's Bison painting 'Chief' took up a whole wall, it was simply jaw dropping. I can honestly say that having seen it in books does not prepare you for the real thing.

There were also various examples showing preparatory work in various stages right through to the finished painting.

As well as the paintings there were several DVD's which you could sit and watch, unfortunately we didn't have time to see these.
If you are in the area and like wildlife art I can almost guarantee you would enjoy a visit.


I came home inspired, so after scanning through my photo's I am going to do a demonstration of how I will work through a painting of a chipmunk, in among all the cats of course.

Speaking of the dreaded C word, I will leave you with my latest ACEO, coloured pencil and graphite on drafting film.


2 comments:

"JeanneG" said...

I absolutely love your cat art. I would like to see a demonstration of how you do those. They are all gorgeous.

Gayle Mason said...

Thank you, I will work through my next cat as a demo.

Gayle