Debby Kaspari - Natural History Art and Illustration
Artist Statement:
I draw and paint from nature. It's important that my work be started-and sometimes finished-in a natural place. In the studio I will combine one or two or more plein air works to create something entirely new. Into these pieces I place birds and animals, also drawn from life. The fleeting conditions of the outdoors (and of living, moving creatures) challenge me, but by working outdoors I can keep and nurture my relationship with nature. In the studio I can slow down and work at a more thoughtful pace; I can take my time and push color, composition and ideas.
Debby Kaspari travels around the world with sketchbooks and binoculars. Her illustrations of tropical owls, nightjars and antbirds will be in the forthcoming Field Guide to Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (Cornell University), and she is a featured artist in Drawing and Painting Birds (Crowood Press). Kaspari's artwork has been in Birds in Art, Art and the Animal, and in 2009, in a solo show at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.
Debby Kaspari lives in Norman, Oklahoma, with her husband, tropical ecologist and OU professor Mike Kaspari. She is currently Artist in Residence in Massachusetts on Harvard University's Charles Bullard Fellowship. Her award-nominated blog is Drawing the Motmot, http://drawingthemotmot.wordpress.com/
I draw and paint from nature. It's important that my work be started-and sometimes finished-in a natural place. In the studio I will combine one or two or more plein air works to create something entirely new. Into these pieces I place birds and animals, also drawn from life. The fleeting conditions of the outdoors (and of living, moving creatures) challenge me, but by working outdoors I can keep and nurture my relationship with nature. In the studio I can slow down and work at a more thoughtful pace; I can take my time and push color, composition and ideas.
Debby Kaspari travels around the world with sketchbooks and binoculars. Her illustrations of tropical owls, nightjars and antbirds will be in the forthcoming Field Guide to Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (Cornell University), and she is a featured artist in Drawing and Painting Birds (Crowood Press). Kaspari's artwork has been in Birds in Art, Art and the Animal, and in 2009, in a solo show at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.
Debby Kaspari lives in Norman, Oklahoma, with her husband, tropical ecologist and OU professor Mike Kaspari. She is currently Artist in Residence in Massachusetts on Harvard University's Charles Bullard Fellowship. Her award-nominated blog is Drawing the Motmot, http://drawingthemotmot.wordpress.com/
