Running wild
Up to 30 works
Manitou Galleries
225 Canyon Road
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 986-9833 www.manitougalleries.com
Manitou Galleries introduces a two-man show for wildlife and animal artists Amy Lay and Jeremy Bradshaw. Each artist brings their own unique flair and grace to the subject matter, but both are profoundly inspired by their personal time among the great outdoors. Bradshaw expresses himself through bronze sculpture, working from real life, while Lay paints in oil, relying on memory for reference.
Both artists have backgrounds that cultivated their love and dedication to wildlife. Bradshaw grew up in rural central California, where he spent a lot of time on his grandfather’s farm. He also explored the Sierra Nevada Mountains as a child and developed a strong interest in animals, which then led to a career in falconry.
“I’m an outdoorsy guy,” says Bradshaw. “I hunt with falcons and I live with wildlife at my house [in Washington], so it’s no surprise that it would translate to my artwork.” The majority of his adult life, Bradshaw trained falcons to keep pests away on farms.
Although he continues to hunt with falcons, Bradshaw can now be found sculpting in his studio. He draws from real life and has the unique opportunity to see wild animals up close and personal. “I work mainly from images,” he explains, “but I have a friend that trains wild animals for movies, so I’ve been out to visit and observe.”
His show piece Coming for Ewe, depicting a mountain lion in mid run, is one such animal he was able to see in person. Manitou Galleries explains it best in stating, “Bradshaw’s sculptures come to life because they reflect an artist’s life authentically committed to the natural world.”
Lay’s work also embodies the same devotion to nature, drawing inspiration from her time in the mountains of Wyoming and her home in northeastern Oregon. “My studio is right inside of my home in the Wallowa Mountains,” she furthers. “It’s only a few steps to my garden and a little horse barn my grandfather built.”
While the show with Manitou Galleries doesn’t have a title to convey a central theme, Lay hopes to evoke a sense of strength and romance. “What has inspired the work has been a combination of my mood and my goals,” she says. “When I think of all the beauty that blankets my life, it encourages me to share it in my work; that richly colored, freely lined, powerful gesture of life all around us.”
Viewers can see such rich color and creative gesture in pieces Beneath the Blues and Little
Brute. Lay is also known for using little for reference, which is unusual for most wildlife artists. She explains, “I’ve found reference photography greatly limits my creativity. I like to pose my animals from my own imagination. It gives me more flexibility and challenges me to understand animal movement.”
“Her work dances across the thick line between realism and abstraction, traditional and contemporary,” says Manitou, “and because of this, appeals to a very broad clientele. It appeals to both the established ‘old guard’ of wildlife art and the growing contemporary genre.”
Fresh works from Lay and Bradshaw will be on display starting with an opening reception on Friday, May 8, and runs through June 7. Viewers will experience new, life-size sculptures from
Bradshaw, which departs from his older work in smaller, tabletop sizes. In addition, there will be a pre-cast offering of a life-size black bear cub that serves as a companion piece to a life-size adult black bear.