January 2011

Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC, Features Exhibit Focused on Birds

Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC, will present the exhibit, Birds in Art, on view in the Rainey Sculpture Pavilion, from Jan. 28 through Apr. 22, 2012.

Known as “the best opportunity for indoor bird-watching on the planet”, this highly acclaimed traveling exhibition of paintings and sculpture was mounted by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum of Wausau, WI. Since 1976, the annual juried exhibit has showcased the remarkable talents of more than 875 international artists, who have presented their very best work interpreting birds and related subjects.

Each year, 60 works by 60 artists are selected from Birds in Art to travel to national and, occasionally, international venues expanding the exhibition’s reach to broader audiences. The 2011 Birds in Art opened to the public at the Woodson Museum on Sept. 10 and is on view there through Nov. 13, 2011. In addition to Brookgreen Gardens, it also travels to museums in Kansas, Michigan, Colorado, and Alaska through 2012 and early 2013.

The traveling exhibit includes 49 paintings, drawings, and prints, and 11 sculptures selected from the 112 artworks shown in the full exhibit. Among the distinguished international group of artists having works in the traveling exhibit are Hélène Arfi (France), Chris Bacon (Canada), Robert Bateman (Canada), John Busby (Scotland), Adele Earnshaw (New Zealand), Peter Gray (South Africa), Simon Gudgeon (England), Nobuko Kumasaka (Japan), Lars Jonsson (Sweden), Zev Labinger (Israel), Lucinda Kate McEachern (Australia), Bernd Pöppelmann (Germany), and Ewoud de Groot (Netherlands).

The American artists include James Morgan (Utah), Frank LaLumia (Colorado), Timothy David Mayhew (New Mexico), Anne Senechal Faust (Louisiana), Roger Martin (North Carolina), Mary Cornish (Virginia), Lorri Davis (Alaska), Hilarie Lambert (South Carolina), Paula Waterman (Maryland), and Thomas Hill (California). A painting by the 2011 Master Wildlife Artist, James Coe, will also be in the traveling exhibit.

In conjunction with Birds in Art, the Woodson Art Museum selects an artist to receive its annual Master Wildlife Artist Award. The award honors artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in using bird imagery in their artwork. The individual recognized as the Master Wildlife Artist is further honored by a mini-retrospective of 10 to 12 artworks during Birds in Art at the Woodson. This year’s Master Wildlife Artist is painter James Coe of Hannacroix, NY.

The Woodson’s 32nd Master Artist, Coe initially was fascinated by egrets and shorebirds that flocked to salt marshes near his suburban New York boyhood home. He worked for many years as a field guide illustrator before he ventured out of the studio and began painting landscapes en plein air. Coe’s work reflects a synthesis of two styles, weaving his insight and skill as a trained naturalist into fresh, deftly painted landscapes often featuring avian subjects.

As the flagship exhibition of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Birds in Art helps the museum to meet its goals of presenting and collecting art of the natural world having birds as the primary or secondary focus. A fully illustrated, four-color catalogue accompanies each exhibition.

Brookgreen Gardens, a National Historic Landmark, is located on US 17 between Myrtle Beach and Pawleys Island, SC, and is open to the public daily.

For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Gardens at 800/849-1931 or visit (www.brookgreen.org).

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