The National Museum of Wildlife Art's Western Visions exhibition…July 22, 2026

Greetings, once more,

I am honored to be invited to be in the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s largest and longest-running fundraiser, Western Visions, which returns for its 39th year this September. The signature evening sale will take place on Thursday, September 17, 2026, from 5–8:30 p.m. MDT at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Western Visions showcases top wildlife artists from around the world who represent the best of contemporary wildlife art, showcasing the breadth and depth of the field.

This year, I am grateful to have been selected by the Museum’s staff to submit a large-format painting, which is entitled, Deep in the Heart of Texas (Oil on Belgian linen, 24 x 32 inches).

Typically, I’ve done most of my shorebird studies along the Pacific Ocean in California, which is the closest coastline to me. But my curiosity to learn new species drew me deep into the heart of Texas to study roseate spoonbills. Lately, I have been fleeing New Mexico’s winter snows and associated cabin fever to travel to Texas’ Gulf Coast to study these fascinating birds as they forage in the shallow waters of tidal lagoons and roost in trees in their rookeries. There, they are protected from coyotes, bobcats, and other predators by the alligators living in the surrounding waters. I am just thankful that I resisted the urge to wade out to get a closer look at the spoonbills as the sun rose.

The 39th annual Western Visions exhibition will be on view at the Museum from September 5 – 27, 2026. Tickets go on sale July 31, 2026, and can be purchased at wildlifeartevents.org, where collectors can also browse the full online catalog.

If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you.

Best,

Timothy

The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's 51st annual Birds in Art exhibition…July 20, 2026

Greetings,

My next exhibition is the internationally-renowned 51st annual Birds in Art, at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, which opens to the public on Saturday, September 12th, 2026 and runs through Sunday, January 3rd, 2027. The Museum’s intent is to celebrate avian beauty through captivating all-new artworks with fresh interpretations by 120 of the world’s most talented artists.

I will have a large oil painting in this exhibition entitled, Monet’s Merganser (Oil on Belgian linen, 32 x 32 inches) depicting a male hooded merganser swimming amongst waterlilies.

This painting came about from my series of annual lectures at Harvard University, which began in 1994. These trips provided me with unique opportunities to study the collections of the Harvard Art Museums and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  I have long been drawn to the paintings of Monet, reveling in his paintings of cathedrals, haystacks, and poplars, but I am especially enthralled by his waterlilies paintings due to the way he depicted color and the fall of light.  My goal was not to reproduce Monet’s work, but to loosen up and use color to recreate this watery environment. Monet was not known for bird paintings, but in 1869 he did an important painting, The Magpie, which was one of his first examples of using color instead of black to depict shadows, a technique that became firmly associated with the Impressionist movement.

While there are not any waterlilies near my New Mexico studio, I have encountered them during my field studies in the Grand Tetons National Park, where I found this scene. The male hooded merganser at the focal point of this painting was from my field studies in Southern California, because a magpie just would not do.

For more information about the 51st annual Birds in Art exhibition, see the Museum’s website at:
https://www.lywam.org/exhibitions-archive/birds-in-art-2026

If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you.

Best,

Timothy