Artists were there from the beginning of colonization, enduring fearsome hardships in order to create the only realistic records of observable life. The earliest known artist was John White who worked under Walter Raleigh in 1585 and a critical member of the first serious preliminary study of the region to support a colony. Grandfather of Virginia Dare, his entire family disappeared from Roanoke while he voyaged for fresh supplies.
In 1712, using White's surviving drawings as references, Mark Catesby sailed from England to lodge with his married sister Elizabeth in the tiny settlement of Williamsburg while he traversed the coastal areas to Florida and back fulfilling his commission by the Royal Society of London to create the first pictorial survey of local wildlife.

And so it continued. Legions of artists have since followed the call to intently study and document nature in all its amazing forms around the globe. Audubon, Fuertes and Thayer to name a few. Join us at the College of William and Mary to celebrate the time honored profession of expedition artist. Hear the exploits of two contemporary globe trekkers as they share their visionary approaches.

Eye to Eye: Guy Coheleach

Gathering visual reference for his paintings, he is a frequent traveler to our national parks, Alaska, Europe, South America and Africa, having been to the Dark Continent as much as four times in one year since the late sixties. In 1972, he was run down by an elephant in Zambia. This hair-raising film has been on all three major networks. "This is exactly that kind of knowledge that has made him one of the best wild animal painters in the world admired by both scientists and art critics," says Pat Robertson in Sporting Classics. His donations to worthy causes are limited only by time and availability of work. At the University of Tennessee, his endowment provides about six full scholarships to the School of Wildlife Management for needy students each year.

Guy's work has been exhibited in the National Collection of Fine Art, The White House, The Corcoran Gallery, and the Royal Ontario Museum. Visiting heads of State have received his American Eagle print. Guy Coheleach's paintings have received the Society of Animal Artists' Award of Excellence an unprecedented eight times.

http://www.guycoheleachart.com/

Clouds, Philosophy and Art: Graeme L. Stephens

What's more entertaining than cloud watching?
When meteorologist/artist Dr. Graeme Stephens paints clouds, he paints them from the inside out.
As principal investigator of NASA's CloudSat mission designed to probe clouds via remote sensing, his understanding of our planet's biosphere is truly far reaching. Not content with searching only future data, Graeme has taken the unique tack of searching the past in old paintings and even old poetry looking for clues to weather patterns of bygone centuries. "Whether an artist, poet, meteorologist or lay person, each of us appreciates the marvels of the atmosphere. Through the ages, it has served as a medium linking art and science. Goethe was adamant that art and science are inseparable, complementary aspects of the human consciousness, and it certainly seems that the atmosphere is the ideal medium to juxtapose these aspects of our consciousness."

Dr. Stephens has accrued a lengthy list of honors and positions during his career: Ph.D in Meteorology, University of Melbourne, Australia; Fellow of the American Meteorological Society; Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Chairman NSF Advisory Panel. He is currently a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University.

http://www.atmos.colostate.edu/dept/facmembers/stephens.html
http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/
http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/art.html