Opening reception Tuesday, October 25, 2005 6-8 pm

Live music by Bob

French and friends

Exhibition continues through Dec.3

Debby Kaspari has lived in Norman, Oklahoma, since 1995. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she graduated from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1981 and has been a fashion illustrator, scientific illustrator and jewelry and collectible designer. She has created artwork for SNOMNH, including a mural and over 80 works on display in the Natural Wonders Gallery. She is a regular illustrator for Birdwatcher’s Digest, and has provided two covers available as limited edition prints. For over 20 years she has been known as a painter of highly realistic watercolors of birds, exhibiting in the Oakland Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the Lawrence Hall of Science, and in the 2003 Birds in Art show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum. Debby is a member of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, Society of Animal Artists, and the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. She enjoys the company of her husband, Mike, and the modeling skills of their golden retriever, Cody, and their alley cat, Gizmo.

 

My work reflects countless hours in the field spent sketching along jungle trails in Panama and Costa Rica, the slightly less tangled paths in my own garden, the Oklahoma City Zoo, and even (watch your step) dog shows at the OKC Fairgrounds. Drawing and observing from nature is at the heart of my work. With a good sketch from life and a few hours in the bird collection at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, I can count feathers and see details I might miss on a moving subject. These paintings, typically watercolors and acrylics, are meant to be accurate and authentic depictions of each species.

 The paintings in this collection represent a new direction as I begin to move from the detail of my early pieces into work that shows a fresh glimpse of the subject and of the artist’s hand. I try to retain the liveliness of field sketches by quickly redrawing them onto large sheets of fine quality paper and adding new elements of appropriate habitat. Bright splashes of pastel highlight the subject and leave the pencil line as a working part of the painting. When you see these pieces, I hope you will feel as though you are on the trail with me, looking over my shoulder as I draw.  Here I try to reveal the creative process and at the same time, uncover the heart and humor of natural history art in an expressive, contemporary way.