BIRDS IN ART EXHIBITION & SALE
The 44th annual Birds in Art exhibition at Leigh Yawkey Woodson features art that captures the spirit and habitats of the creatures.
For the past 43 years, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, has celebrated the personalities and environments of birds through its annual Birds in Art exhibition. September 7 to December 1, the museum will present its 44th edition with original paintings, sculptures and graphics by 114 artists on view. This year’s show includes pieces by 22 previously honored Master Artists along with art by 91 artists selected by a three-person jury. Each work in the show captures the essence of the avian creatures in traditional and contemporary aesthetics.
One juried artist is Leslie Pratt-Thomas, whose painting Fives Spoons, No Forks depicts roseate spoonbills on a waterway— inspired by her first sighting of the birds in the wild. Designed in an immersive format with some birds flying off the canvas edges, she allows the viewer to feel as if they are part of the scene. Pratt-Thomas says, “Employing artistic license, I modified the foreground and background, and brought more than 20 years of plein air experience to this painting.”
Alan Woollett was named the 2019 Master Artist—the 38th in the history of the exhibition—and will discuss his career and artwork during a presentation from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on opening day. “Alan’s mastery of the colored pencil medium expands the high standards that define the museum’s Master Artists,” says Kathy Kelsey Foley, director of the museum. “His artwork is distinct and distinctly his own. Alan brings new perspectives to the pantheon of Woodson Art Museum Masters.”
Keeping in tradition with the past three years, Birds in Art’s opening events will coincide with Wausau’s Artrageous Weekend.