Tag: animals

Jerzy Marek

Jerzy Marek, “Spots”, Date Unknown, Oil on Canvas

Jerzy Marek was born in Poland in 1925 and showed early promise in both art and woodcarving.  But the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when he was only fourteen, put a complete hold on his artistic career for many years.  He ended the War with the British Army in Italy and finally settled in the United Kingdom in 1948.  For the next many years, Jerzy pursued a successful career as a civil engineer and bridge designer.

He started painting in oils in 1970 and initially spent much of his leisure time encouraging other artists locally in the Preston area where he eventually found himself.  This group became known as the “Marek Circle” and even included his mother-in-law Margaret Baird who subsequently became a successful primitive artist in her own right.  After taking early retirement in 1983, Marek began to concentrate on his painting.

His early work featured sporting themes; but these soon gave way to pastoral themes and then close-ups of animals and birds, all painted from memory. Jerzy Marek’s work has been exhibited in galleries worldwide including Glasgow, Paris, Hamburg and many other cities.  Reference to his work is made in the Rona Guide to the World of Naïve Art as well as Muller’s World Encyclopedia of Naive Art.  Jerzy Marek died in early 2014 at the age of 90.

African Serval

Photographer Unknown, African Serval, Felidae Leptailurus serval

Servals are a small cat species oringinating from Africa. The size of an African Serval ranges between 18 to 40 pounds, with males being the largest. They look similar to a small version of the cheetah, but are in fact an entirely different species. These exotic beauties have a wonderful coat that is yellowish to reddish brown with distinctive dark spots and stripes. There are also a couple of varieties including the all Black Serval, and the woodland Servaline which has much smaller spots in its patterning.

Servals have a long slender build and long legs. The back legs are slightly longer than the front. Their body form is then complimented with a narrow head and very large, prominent ears. Servals are a swift and graceful predator in the African bush. Everything about the appearance and body form of this cat reflects its natural instincts, behaviors, and abilities. Their coat provides a perfect camouflage, their long back legs provide incredible power in a leap, and they have acute hearing with those large ears. What they lack in size they make up for in speed and agility.

They are versatile stealth hunters that will stalk their prey or patiently crouch in the brush listening intently for quarry. With the slightest rustle they leap in a graceful arc, up to 10 feet into the air, pouncing on their prey and striking with a chop of their paws. These incredible cats have a 50 percent success rate, a phenomenal feat in the cat world.

Peter Samuels

Animal Photography by Peter Samuels

Photographer Peter Samuels is based in San Francisco. He was a commercial photographer and now photographs woodland creatures and animals.

“…animals have been evolving as the strongest body of my work with lots of press, accolades and a growing amount of fine art print sales. So finally at the start of this year, I called it and owned up to the animal genre. As someone whose prior focus was product, people and animals, deciding to specialize has been ironically liberating, allowing me to hone my skill set and continually strengthen my work.”        – Peter Samuels

Kendra Haste

Wire Animal Sculptures by Kendra Haste

Kendra is a contemporary animal sculptor working with the medium of galvanised wire. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1998, Kendra has established a significant reputation in her field with work included in collections world-wide. She is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artsists (UK) and a signature member of the Sociey of Animal Artists (USA).

Public sculptures in the United Kingdom include an elephant at Waterloo Station, London and thirteen works at the Tower of London, commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces in 2010.

“What interests me most about studying animals is identifying the spirit and character of the individual creatures. I try to create a sense of the living, breathing subject in a static 3-D form, attempting to convey the emotional essence without indulging in the sentimental or anthropomorphic.” -Kendra Haste

Wang Ruilin

Wang Ruilin, Sculptor: Four Animals from his “Dreams” Series, Copper, 2014

Chinese sculptor Wang Ruilin’s copper sculptures are the result of Eastern classical painting and imagery that’s been combined with past experiences. In an ongoing series titled “Dreams,”  Wang Ruilin creates surreal animals that don’t act like animals at all. Their backs, and sometimes their antlers, function as arcs that carry monumental elements of nature like lakes and mountain cliffs. It’s like an animal-version of Noah’s Arc without people.

“Leaving individuals behind is painful”, admits the 29-year old sculptor, but it allows us to reduce confusion and see the value and force of life.