PRESTIGIOUS AWARD AT SAA EXHIBIT

"DUST DEVIL" - my painting of a charging black rhino won the prestigious PRESIDENTS AWARD at the Society of Animal Artists 50th Anniversary ART AND THE ANIMAL at the San Diego Museum of Natural History. Pictured is one of the judges - Joshua Rose - editor and publisher of WESTERN ART COLLECTOR and AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR magazine.

MORNING GLOW

This is the new wolf painting I have just completed.  It represents a little change in my technique which is to underpaint with a Burnt Sienna (rust) color to try to create a "glow" and emphasize the reflected light.  I'm quite happy with the way it came out - hope you agree!

New Bison

A new bison painting. I've been experimenting with more "sizzle" in my paintings by ramping up the saturation of my color and also adding colors such as purples and blues. This is a small piece - only 11 x 14 but I'm quite happy with it.

Collectors and Experts on my work

PHOTO: Me with Kip Forbes at my solo exhibition at FORBES GALLERIES, NY.

“You can almost hear the creatures breathing in Jan Martin McGuire’s paintings. More than just reality, she succeeds in capturing the soul and nobility of beasts and birds big and small”.

Chrisopher Forbes FORBES MAGAZINE

"I was captivated by Jan Martin McGuire's paintings the first time that I saw them. She paints all animal species with the same virtuosity, enabling the viewer to feel actually present in the foreground."

Tom James - Chairman of the Board, RAYMOND JAMES FINANCIAL

"Jan Martin McGuire is among the top women artists focusing on wildlife today. Her perennial presence in top museum-quality exhibitions is proof of her status in the wildlife art world."

David Wagner

LEADING WILDLIFE ART SCHOLAR AND MUSEUM CURATOR

"Having hunted all over the globe, I have seen and studied nature first hand. Jan's work brings the qualities of nature to the canvas. The colors and texture that she uses make her paintings realistic. Whether it is a beautiful little bird or a hard charging rhino, her work is exquisite."

Irvin Barnhart ART COLLECTOR, RENOWNED AWARD WINNING BIG GAME HUNTER AND CONSERVATIONIST

Baobab and elephant painting

Working on a 36 x 24" painting of elephants and a Baobab tree from our recent trip to Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. Tarangire is a Baobab forest - really unbelievable and beautiful. I'm really enjoying doing the texture of the bark!

Other photo

For some reason my blog won't let me post the two photos side by side - don't know why! Anyway, here is the photo of me from last week standing in the Serengeti with 100,000+ wildebeests massing to cross into Kenya.

STOP THE SERENGETI HIGHWAY

James and I just got back from our fabulous trip to Tanzania. One of the highlights was our camp in the remote Northern Serengeti where the wildebeest were massing to begin crossing the Mara river into Kenya. The one photo shows me in front of only a small portion of this herd last week, the other I took in Kenya last year of them during the migration - I am planning a major painting this on based on this.

I have seen this amazing spectacle several times and I am always speechless in awe of what is transpiring. MILLIONS of wildbeest make this trek every year but now there is a proposed highway that will cut across the Northern Serengeti which will have devastating effects on this natural wonder. There is an alternate Southern route which will help many more people and NOT impact the migration. There is a Fan Site on Facebook called STOP THE SERENGETI HIGHWAY that has all the pertinent information along with a petition. Please take a few minutes to look this up. A website is also in the making.

Africa

James and I are getting ready for our trip to Tanzania. We are leading a small group to Tarangire, Lake Manyara and two camps in the Serengeti. But first we are delivering some of my art and James' photos to our gallery in Arusha!

Featured in Magazine

I was featured in the Museum/Events section of WESTERN ART COLLECTOR Magazine June 2010 issue. This is from the COWGIRL UP!!! exhibition.

MY STUDIO

Sorry I have not been more active posting to my blog. I've gotten very involved with keeping our Fan page on Face Book updated and I keep forgetting about my blog! If you aren't a fan already on Face Book you might want to check it out. You can access it by clicking on the icon on the homepage of my webpage at www.janmartinmcguire.com

I thought you might find it fun and interesting to visit my studio. I'm a detailed acrylic painter so I sit to paint and I use a drafting table. I'm EXTREMELY messy - I don't understand when I see photos in magazines of artists with their pristine studios! I have paint all over (notice the apron in my chair) me, the floor, the painting table - everywhere!!

From the left:

FILE CABINET

I paint from photo prints - always have - and what works best for me is to have file cabinets with all my photos carefully labeled in color coded files. Now that I have digital I print a few photos from a "scene" and then write the numbers on the back of where I can find them in the computer if I want to look at more. I also have magazine pictures that

I use as back up reference in the files as well.

REFERENCE TABLE

I have a table to my left that has a variety of things, but mostly it is where I layout all

the reference I will be using for a painting. Notice the file that is open and two books on

lions which is the subject of the painting I'm working on. There are also some manilla

envelopes with some "good ideas" for future paintings

CALENDAR

I have a large desk calendar above my painting table. I write paintings on post it notes

that I have to do for exhibitions. I can move the post it notes as needed to adjust the

dates I'm working on them.

BATEMAN

Robert Bateman is my muse and mentor. I have some pages from his books of some

of my favorite paintings up to give me inspiration.

CHAIR AND TABLE

Since I sit to paint it's important that I have an ergonomically good chair. I use a drafting

table that has a handle to easily adjust the height. I paint vertically most of the time but

sometimes I will angle it or lay it flat for washes or for applying varnish.

REFERENCE PHOTOS

Notice that I have several photos taped to my painting table. I usually have one or two

primary reference that I'm working from, with several secondary as back up. I've gotten

very good at taking a good strong photo with the light and composition that I want so that

I can work pretty closely from them. But photos LIE! They don't show all details and/or

the animal can be in a weird position etc. so I ALWAYS double check everything with

back up photos and reference

PAINTING "SUPPORT"

I paint on gessoed untempered masonite. I like the smooth surface to create my work on.

I buy it in large 4 x 8 sheets and then cut it to the size I need. This is 11 x 14.

LIGHTS

I have an inexpensive shop light over my painting table. There is a warm colored bulb

and a cool colored bulb that equal out to fairly "normal" light. Both these bulbs you can

get from Wal mart etc. I disagree with the "you have to paint from natural north light" ,

people do not view your art outside! They view it in their homes under "normal" lighting

conditions!!!

Also, since I'm a detailed artist and I'm getting older, I use a good lighted magnifying lamp.

This one is designed for quilters and has a very long adjustable arm, and, it is on rollers

so I can move it back and forth across the painting as needed.

PAINT

I paint with a type of acrylic paint called Chromacolours. They are manufactured in Canada. The pigment is suspended in resin rather than polymer which I think gives them a softer finish - more like a gouche. They dry slightly slower and they also dry closer

to the color on the palette without the color shift of many acrylics.

PALETTE

I use a Masterstons StayWet palette for Acrylic paints. It has a sponge that you keep wet

and then special palette paper you also soak. This keeps the acrylics from drying out

so quickly. With the air tight lid you put on when you aren't using the paints, the paint

stays wet usually for the entire length of the painting.

HAIR DRYER

I use a hair dryer to dry the paint even faster so that I can layer quickly.

I hope you've enjoyed you little tour of my studio and find it interesting and helpful!

TWO IMPORTANT EXHIBITIONS

My work has been accepted to the two most prestigious animal art exhibits on the planet - BIRDS IN ART at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum and ART AND THE ANIMAL the Society of Animal Artists annual juried membership show! The vultures - "VULTURE VIEW" was accepted into BIA and "DUST DEVIL" of the black rhino got into the SAA show. Huge honors!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Sorry I haven't posted recently. We are on a road trip to Florida to do some photography, met with clients and a gallery, and spend a little time with friends out on their boat. I'm SO grateful to the retired couple who stays at our house and takes care of all animals which allows us to do some traveling.

I will post photos from the trip as soon as I can!

BISON STARTED

I like a clean area to work my fur/hair technique. I use to masque out with watercolor masque, but it tended to create hard edges. So now I transfer my drawing to the painting surface (just the outlines of the animals) and go back and paint them in with my purplish tinted gesso.

GRASSES

I am now laying in the grasses by "scrumbling". That is, to take an old brush, and scrunch and push it up and down and sometimes around to create the underlying texture of the grass. This seems to work best in sort of a semi dry brush technique. If the paint is to thin (to much water) if creates softer edges which don't look as much like grass.

The second photo is of the grass area underpainting now done.

Lying in the background

I generally paint sitting down since I am a detailed artist. However, for a large painting like this, lying in the background area I stand up. Here I'm doing the far off tree line.

DRAWINGS

First I did a drawing about 8 x 10ish to present to the collector.  Once approved I then created a grid on the drawing so that I could redraw larger to scale on a piece of 30 x 40" tracing paper.

Other photo

Here is the photo at Wolf Park that for some reason didn't post.

NEW BISON PAINTING

I have a big commission from a local judge of a herd of bison.  I'm going to show you this painting as I work on it from beginning to end.  These first two photos are me in the field researching bison.  This is ongoing - I have photos in my files that I took 25 years ago.  I'm always out sketching, photographing and studying nature and then when I decide to do a painting I go back into my files and sketchbooks to find materials to use as reference in my paintings.

The first photo was taken during one of my workshops at Wolf Park - www.wolfpark.org.  This wonderful place is the only research facility that has socialized wolves.  As part of the enrichment of the wolves the biologist periodically put them out with a healthy herd of bison.  Because the wolves are well feed, and the bison are strong, there is no killing that goes on, but just interesting interactions between the two species.  I'm in the white shirt and you can see in this photo all I'm doing is watching and studying.

I have had lots of research on bison through the years - Yellowstone, Bison National Refuge etc.  But I am lucky in that I have three sources of bison close to me.  One is a private ranch north of our town, then we also have the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve which is owned by the Nature Conservancy about 20 minutes from us.  This is stocked with bison from the private ranch mentioned earlier. 

 Then we also have Woolaroc - www.Woolaroc.com - which is a wonderful museum and wildlife refuge 20 minutes away.  James and I got special permission to go out with one of the ranch hands to photograph longhorns one day - and as you can see and added bonus were some of the bison.

POSSIBLE WORKSHOP

I am toying with the idea of putting together a combination photos shoot and workshop September 24-26 in Minnesota. The shoot will be at MINNESOTA WILDLIFE CONNECTION which is where James took this wonderful photo of a red fox. At this stage I am trying to gage level of interest. If you think this is something you might be interested in please email me at mcguireandhines@aol.com and let me know1