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Humans, Nature and Birds |
From Room 8: The Importance of Captions |
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 Plate 61 |
Caption as a Catalogue Entry Brest van Kempen brings a singular vitality to wildlife art. This may be due to his strong connection with his subjects. As he notes, “While many bird artists paint in order to share their experiences with the wider world, my motivation is more selfish. I usually paint as a way of seeing things I would like to see, but could never see in any other way. This includes hypothetical but plausible situations or impossible viewpoints. I paint in an extremely fussy style where every detail is more visible than it would be in a photograph. In the real world you can move in closer to a subject or change your position in order to discover more about what you’re viewing. I try to design my work to give my viewer a similar experience.” When painting this nighttime scene, he says, “I had great fun inventing the city details, incorporating lame jokes and inside barbs at friends and acquaintances. Close scrutiny even reveals a hint of my own face in the ’67 Dodge van that served as my studio/home at the time I painted this.” Brest van Kempen’s work has been exhibited widely across six continents, garnering numerous awards, including the Arts for the Parks Wildlife Award, three Society of Animal Artists Awards of Excellence, and Best of Show at the Pacific Rim Wildlife Art Show, the South Eastern Wildlife Expo, and many other major group shows. His representational style page 3--> |
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Plate 61 Two Stories--Common Nighthawk, 1994, by Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen |
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