Wildlife Artist Robert L Caldwell exhibiting at the 2009 Birds in Art at Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum

Birds in Art 2009

Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum

700 North 12th Street

Wausau, Wisconsin

September 12 – November 15, 2009

Robert’s painting “Sewanee Barn (Feral Pigeons)” has been selected to appear at the 2009 Birds in Art Exhibit, September 12 through November, 15, 2009, in Wausau, Wisconsin.

Organized annually since 1976 by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Birds in Art presents the very best contemporary artistic interpretations of birds and related subject matter. Each year, a jury selects approximately 100 works to take part in the exhibit. This year, 545 artists from around the world submitted 884 pieces of art. Robert is one of 112 juried artists selected for the exhibit; the show will also include the work of nearly 20 master wildlife artists.

“Sewanee Barn (Feral Pigeons),” a 30- by 13-inch oil painting, captures a trio of pigeons perched on an abandoned dairy barn in the remote fields of Sewanee, Tennessee, which lies on the mountainous Cumberland Plateau in the southeastern part of middle Tennessee.

“I loved the textures of the old wood, and the sun was just at the right angle to give the shadows visual appeal,” Robert says. “The long vertical orientation of the painting gives you the feeling of the barn’s height, which was about four stories. It was an internal debate between placing the pigeons or an owl in the setting but because it was a daytime scene, the pigeons won.”

Birds in Art opens Sept. 12, coinciding with Wausau’s Artrageous Weekend, a two-day, three-event art extravaganza on both sides of the Wisconsin River: Art in the Park at Marathon Park, Festival of Arts in downtown Wausau and Birds in Art at the Woodson Art Museum.

“Sewanee Barn (Feral Pigeons)” also had been selected for the 2008 Kentucky National Wildlife Art Exhibit held at the Henderson Fine Arts Center in Henderson, Kentucky.

"Sewanee Barn (Feral Pigeons)," Oil painting by Wildlife artist Robert L Caldwell

"Sewanee Barn (Feral Pigeons)"

Oil, 30 x 13

(Birds in Art 2009 Announcement/Invite)

(Map to the Museum)

For more information, visit www.lywam.org or you can find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Update: Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum added Robert’s painting “Sewanee Barn (Feral Pigeons)” to its permanent collection. He is extremely honored and excited.

In a thank-you note to the museum and its staff, Robert wrote: “Nothing else has even remotely come close to that feeling of belonging to something so great that I felt when sitting under the tent for the first time in 2007. I consider Birds in Art to be the measuring stick for all of my work and artistic endeavors. I feel now that that measuring stick has been raised much higher. Thank you, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum for adding my painting to the Woodson collection. I will continue to strive to do my very best to reach that new height.”

In addition, “Sewanee Barn (Feral Pigeons)” was one of 60 works selected from Birds in Art 2009 to be included in a national tour. This tour considerably expands the exhibition’s reach to broader audiences.

Birds in Art 2009 Venues

Woodson Art Museum

Wausau, Wisconsin

www.lywam.org

715.845.7010

September 12 – November 15, 2009

Muskegon Museum of Art

Muskegon, Michigan

www.muskegonartmuseum.org

231.720.2571

December 10, 2009 – February 14, 2010

Museum of the Red River