Artists: Tim Shinabarger

Tim Shinabarger is too modest, too soft spoken to ever put together a biography for his own web page, so as a writer who has penned several magazine stories about his work over the years, allow me to provide an introduction. To use a professional sports metaphor, Shinabarger is what you might call a potent double threat. He's an award-winning sculptor, as well as a gifted oil painter, and his explorations in both mediums have transformed him into one of the exceptional talents of his generation.

I love to experience raw nature, I live for it," he says. Whenever I feel as if I've been trapped in civilization for too long, I can't wait to touch the wilderness, taste it and smell it. When I'm in the backcountry gathering material for a new piece, this is how I empower myself to say something artistically."

Shinabarger's wildlife studies and monumental celebrations of big game animals have earned him honors and recognition from the National Sculpture Society, the Society of Animal Artists, and several prominent museums, distinctions rare for someone so young. Most recently in 2001, he was the recipient of the C. Percival Dietsch Award from the National Sculpture Society. He has also received the Louis Bennett Prize from the National Sculpture Society, the Elliot Liskin Award form the Society of Animal Artists, and the Tuffy Berg Memorial Award from the C.M. Russell Museum.

In order to convey the essence of his elusive subjects, Shinabarger says it is necessary to put himself in a position to directly observe them in the wild. Following in the footsteps of such pathfinders as Carl Rungius, Belmore Brown, Bob Kuhn, and Ken Bunn, Shinabarger makes regular pilgrimages into the wilderness to gather ideas for new material. - Todd Wilkinson