The Nature Conservancy co-sponsors David Sibley presentation
The Life, Art and Birding of David Sibley
Exhibit is on display thru Dec. 30, 2006 at Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art
HARRISBURG, PA—Longtime friend and contributor to The Nature Conservancy, internationally known artist and conservationist David Allen Sibley, will offer a rare inside discussion of his art and groundbreaking field guide on Nov. 3.
Sibley – author of several books, including the Sibley Guide to Birds, which has sold more than three-quarters of million copies since it was published in 2000 – is the keynote speaker at the President’s Circle Gala Dinner at the Country Club of Harrisburg hosted by Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art, and co-sponsored by The Nature Conservancy in Pennsylvania. Following the gala, Sibley will conduct a Nov. 4 gallery talk about his work, teach an art class and sign books at the Olewine Gallery of the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art in Millersburg.
The collection, on display until Dec. 30, is the first retrospective of Sibley's life and the largest exhibition of this internationally renowned artist's work ever mounted. For information on the exhibit or tickets to the gala, call the Ned Smith Dinner at 717-692-3699.
The Life, Art and Birding of David Sibley features more than 75 of his original paintings, field sketches, ink drawings and scratchboards, few of which have ever been shown publicly. It traces Sibley's development as an artist from his childhood, banding birds with his ornithologist father in California, through the 1980s and '90s traveling from the Florida Keys to the remote Aleutian Islands, observing and sketching virtually every North American species as he developed his pioneering guide.
"This is by far the largest and most comprehensive show of David Sibley's work ever presented," said Jerry Regan, executive director of the Ned Smith Center. "It's an extraordinary exhibit, showing not only the quality of a world-renowned artist, but the passion of one of our country's leading conservationists."
“We are delighted to help bring David Sibley to Pennsylvania and to co-sponsor Friday’s gala presentation,” said Bill Kunze, state director, The Nature Conservancy in Pennsylvania. “Mr. Sibley’s stunning art and field guides are the standard for birders throughout the world. His contributions have raised appreciation and awareness of the need to conserve habitat for scores of endangered birds. It is a wonderful opportunity to hear firsthand about his work and to have his work displayed in Central Pennsylvania.”
David Sibley’s numerous field experiences include an internship at the Conservancy’s Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge in New Jersey, one of the Earth’s most important migratory bird stopover sites and a critical nesting ground for endangered beachnesting birds such as least terns and piping plovers.
Among the exhibition's highlights, Regan said, are more than three dozen illustration plates from the famous guide. But also showcased are some of the exquisite ink drawings and scratchboards Sibley produced in the 1990s, as well as his more recent works, which include loose, impressionistic paintings in gouache, an opaque watercolor that has long been his favorite medium. Field sketches and early experiments with field guide design trace the almost 11 years Sibley spent refining his revolutionary ideas on bird identification.
"I'm very pleased to have the Ned Smith Center mounting this exhibit of my work," Sibley said. "I have always hoped that my work would help to connect people to the natural world around them, which is precisely what the Ned Smith Center does. I hope that the immediacy of seeing the original art and some of the preliminary sketches and paintings will help to give people a deeper appreciation of the birds and their world."
The Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art, located on 530 wooded acres two miles east of Millersburg, seeks to bridge the worlds of creativity and natural science through its programs, exhibitions and activities. For more information about the Center, including directions and hours, visit www.nedsmithcenter.org, or call (717) 692-3699.
Editors: Digital photographs of Sibley in the field, and examples of his art, are available from the center. Call (717) 692-3699 or email Angie Zimmerman at angelat@epix.net.
FACTS ABOUT DAVID SIBLEY
--Born October 1961 in New York. Grew up helping his father, noted ornithologist Fred Sibley, band birds in California, where as a boy he first got the idea to create a new kind of field guide.
--Started to follow his father's career in ornithology, but dropped out of college after one year, becoming a "bird bum" of sorts – working as a hawk-counter in Cape May, N.J., a bander in Massachusetts, and leading birding tours all across the country – the perfect education for a birding whiz.
--After more than a decade of field work, Sibley spent six years refining the design and layout of his new field guide, then another five years meticulously painting more than 6,600 illustrations showing all 800 species of North American birds, at rest and in flight, and in every possible plumage.
--The Sibley Guide to Birds, published in 2000, was immediately hailed as a ground-breaking advance in bird identification. The New York Times wrote of it, "Once in a great while, a natural history book changes the way people look at the world." Plenty of people apparently agree - more than three-quarters of a million copies have been sold. Sibley has also published two regional field guides, a book on the basics of birding, a guide to bird behavior, and has illustrated many other books, including The Wind Masters and Hawks in Flight. (Art from all these books are included in the exhibition.)
--Sibley, 45, is married to biologist Joan Walsh; they live in Concord, Mass. with their two sons.
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The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States—including more than 40,000 acres in Pennsylvania —and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. For more information visit nature.org/pennsylvania.
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