Carel Brest van Kempen Profile
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Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen has brought a singular vitality to wildlife art. Uncompromisingly detailed and artfully composed, his work is at once vivid and startling, depicting seldom-illustrated species engaged in life's struggles -- alive. To view his work is to be pulled into the drama and diversity of life. The artist explains his aim is to "say as much as I can about how (an animal) lives and interacts with its environment and with other organisms."Since he was a child growing up in Emigration Canyon, east of Salt Lake City, Brest van Kempen has been a student of nature. He spent his youth exploring untracked back country, drawing, studying and collecting the native fauna. As an adult his travels have taken him around the globe -- throughout the Americas as well as Africa and Asia, studying the ecology of these regions.
Brest van Kempen has exhibited his work throughout the world and earned numerous awards in the United States, including 'Best of Show' at the South Eastern Wildlife Expo in Charleston, SC (1995) and the Pacific Rim Wildlife Art Show in Seattle, WA (1995 and 1998), and the Arts for the Parks Wildlife Award (1992). The Society of Animal Artists bestowed on him their highest honor, the 'Award of Excellence' four times, in 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2004. In 1995 USART magazine named him a 'Rising Star' for that year, and both Wildlife Art Magazine and the Florida Wildlife Art Expo included him in their lists of 'Artists for the New Millennium." His work has been the subject of dozens of articles appearing in periodicals in North America, Europe and Asia. The public collections that own his works include the Springville Art Museum, Springville, UT; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI; World Center for Birds of Prey, Boise, ID; and Bennington Center for the Arts, Bennington, VT. Brest van Kempen's work is published by Mill Pond Press, of Venice, FL.
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acrylic on illustration board 20” x 30” My object with this piece was simply to create an interesting juxtaposition of two very different sympatric bird species. The massive Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus), solitary, clad in dismal black and white, contrasts with the noisy, gregarious and colorful Patagonian Conures (Cyanoliseus patagonius). Although in close spatial proximity, the two are completely oblivious to and unaffected by one another. The Andean condor is one of the world’s biggest flying birds. A remnant of a group of giant raptors that was widespread and successful during the Pliocene, it is the only species of giant condor that still functions in the wild today. Its patchy distribution runs along the western edge of South America. The male bird, which is shown, can be distinguished by the rooster-like “caruncle” on his head. The Patagonian conure is a unique species of parakeet that nests communally in systems of burrows dug into the faces of soft cliffs and cutbanks. Other creatures in this painting are: Blue and White Swallows (Notiochelidon cyanoleuca), Mountain Viscachas (Lagidium viscacia) and a Mountain Iguana (Phymaturus palluma).
acrylic on illustration board 18” x 24” One of two members of a genus of long-tailed, agile carnivores, the Northern Cacomistle (Bassariscus astutus) is distributed across the western United States and Mexico. Like its relative the raccoon, its range has expanded during the twentieth century, and now stretches as far east as Ohio and Alabama. Capable of exploiting a multitude of habitats, it is still most typically a creature of rocky terrain, scrambling about sheer cliffs with amazing dexterity. This nocturnal animal is only rarely abroad in daylight. It is usually only in the springtime that it habitually basks in the early morning sunlight before bedding down for the day. In Utah I associate the cacomistle with the sandstone desert of the Colorado Plateau. Incidental creatures in this piece are a Side-blotched Lizard (Uta stansburiana) and a hairy scorpion (Hadrurus sp.).
acrylic on illustration board 13.5” x 9” The Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala) haunts marshes and riverbanks throughout the southeastern quadrant of the United States. At night it forages actively for insect prey, spending the days resting on shore near the water. When frightened by a potential predator, such as this Tricolored Heron (Hydranassa tricolor), it leaps into the water and executes a sharp turn or two, ending up some distance from where its foe would expect it.
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| Name: | Carel Brest van Kempen |
PO Box 17647 | |
| Phone: | |
| Occupation: | artist |
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