Birds enthrall us with their stunning plumage, amusing antics, and lilting song. Avian art inspires in endlessly novel ways too, evoking the freedom of flight and the fragility of their earthbound existence. Artists from throughout the world push themselves to new heights, striving to be selected for the internationally renowned “Birds in Art” exhibition.
The 43rd annual “Birds in Art” exhibition celebrates avian marvels through new interpretations — in an array of mediums, including oil, watercolor, the graphic arts, bronze, stone, and others — created within the last three years.
Saturday morning opening festivities for “Birds in Art 2018” will include honoring New England pastel artist Cindy House (art featured at top) as the 2018 Master Artist. House’s exquisite pastel landscapes appear — by design — to be oil paintings, and feature sweeping vistas of avian habitats. House began as a bird-book illustrator working in watercolor, a career she credits “Birds in Art” with helping to launch. Editors, seeking an artist to work on illustrations for a new National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, attended the “Birds in Art” opening in 1981, House’s first year in the exhibition. “Impressed by my work, they called me a week later,” House said. “From then on, to be accepted into ‘Birds in Art’ was an annual goal for me.” Since then, she has attained that goal 26 times and attended the opening 23 of those years. The exhibition also played a part in her search for a new medium. The artist reflected, “I eventually found my life’s passion in pastels, and it was at ‘Birds in Art’ where they first found an audience.” Fifteen Cindy House artworks will comprise her 2018 “Birds in Art” Master Artist grouping.
“Regal Bearing: Bird Portraiture” is on view September 4, 2018, through August 11, 2019, at Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum (Wausau, Wisconsin). For more information, please visit www.lywam.org.
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Hello Fine Art Connoisseur,
I would love to enter my Australian bird artworks next year, can you send me details to [email protected] so I can do this?
Susan
Hello Susan! The best way to learn about next year’s event will be to contact the museum directly through their website at https://www.lywam.org/. Thank you for reading, and best wishes to you!
April 15th is the deadline for 2019 entries…. it’s worth your effort to enter every year. I’ve known fellow artists who’ve entered many times without success… and then they finally get the acceptance letter, making all their time worth while (it’s email these days… but I save all my older acceptance letters). The MOST important part of the entry process is making sure your entry is of the right size/quality file so the jury sees it correctly
[…] The 2018 exhibition presents artworks by 114 artists in total: 2018 Master Artist Cindy House, 21 who were named Master Artists during previous “Birds in Art” exhibitions, and 92 artists whose work was selected by three jurors who reviewed 904 entries submitted by 575 artists. […]