Wildlife Artist of the Year 2010 Competition

One of the associations that I belong to is The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. The DSWF stationed in the UK has given away over £3million in grants to save critically endangered mammals in their wild habitat and benefit the local people who share their environment. David Shepherd is known internationally as an artist and ambassador for wildlife.

As part of the DSWF events, an annual art competition is held at the famous Mall galleries in london England with the Artist of the Year winning £10,000. The two pieces that have been entered are Anticipation and New Growth.


Anticipation is a large graphite piece that involves brush work as well as pencil work. It features two Turkey Vultures soaring high above and is actually designed to be hung from the ceiling so that viewer has to "look up into the sky" to admire the art.







New Growth is an Artistic Cartography piece that is done in graphite and Staedtler Marker on top of a Relief Map of Canada. The inspiration behind this piece involves the concept of new vegetation that takes root after a forest fire and the hope that the numbers of our Canadian Wood Bison will continue to increase and grow.

San Diego Zoo and the Beckman Centre

I recently returned from a trip to San Diego - beautiful weather - 75 and sunny!


We went to the famous San Diego Zoo as well as the Wildlife Park - I took over 250 photos - the beauty of digital cameras. I have attached a few to show you some of the magnificent animals that live there.


As part of this trip I was also able to have a private tour of the Beckman Center for Conservation Research by Robin Keith - Conservation Education Research Coordinator for the San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Research.


Watch for new artwork coming up in the early new year as well for a fund raising event to be held at the Zoo. The San Diego Zoo http://www.sandiegozoo.org/ will be hosting Koalapalooza, a 4-day fundraiser to raise awareness for the plight of koalas in Australia. In conjunction, the Zoo is hosting an online auction from January 8 - 19, 2010 with all proceeds directly benefitting Australian wildlife conservation. Check it out: www.sandiegozoo.org/koalapalooza


I will be donating a small original drawing of a Koala for the auction. As the piece progresses you will be able to watch on my site: http://www.stuartarnett.com/

Society of Canadian Artists

As part of my duties as an artist - I decided to take on the role of VP of Membership for the Society of Canadian Artists. The SCA is a group that I have belonged to since 2008 and the group tries to promote visual artists throughout Canada. We have just finished our fall membership drive and have added 19 new members by jury selection. Our next membership drive is scheduled for the spring with an application deadline of April 16, 2010. More information can be found either on the SCA website at www.societyofcanadianartists.com or my emailing me.

Recent trip to Algonquin Park

Just this week I had to go to Algonquin park to retrieve my art from the Tin Moose Gallery located at the beautiful Killarney Lodge. The Lodge closes for the winter and it was time to make the trip - the weather wasn't the best - drizzle and a bit of wet snow; however, we did see a couple of bull moose along side Highway 60.

One magnificent bull was actually 'waiting" for us to arrive because he was standing directly across from Killarney's gate - a perfect photo opt. Even though it wasn't sunny the light still shone off of his antlers.

My first blog!

Well, I'm taking the plunge - I thought it was about time to start a blog - might be easier than trying to publish a monthly newsletter. This way I can let you know how things are progressing with my art and keep you up-to-date on my field study trips and anything else that may be related to art and wildlife.

I hope you enjoy it!