Jurying The SAA 2020 Members' Exhibition

     Well, it seems this year is bringing many changes in all aspects of life for many of us, including the Society of Animal Artists that has shifted to doing all our juries online. When the SAA started out, they used to jury their exhibitions from the actual works ... imagine having to do that now! Then they transitioned to jurying from works submitted via slides. Many of us, including me, remember submitting our works to numerous shows this way and having to tape the slides with a special heat resistant silver-tape, in order to block off areas showing around the actual artwork. It was a time-consuming process and your slides became cherished possessions. You always included a self-addressed, stamped envelope to be sure to have them returned to you after the jury process. 

Fast forward a couple of decades and now artists can easily submit online via the magical internet! Although the submission process was the same this year, the actual jurying process had to be changed due to the travel limitations associated with the COVID 19 virus, so instead of jurying in person whilst sitting in the comfort of SAA President Reneé Bemis' home theatre, the panel of 9 jurors juried the artworks on their own computer screens at home. Like years past, artist's names were removed from the works, and they were uploaded in random order to two dropbox folders, one for small works under 8 inches, and the other with all other regular-sized works.

The SAA 57th Annual Exhibition at the Hiram Blauvelt

The process actually worked very well, and the jurors were pleased with being able to take a little more time to look more closely at the works, instead of having to make almost a split-second choice, like has been done in the past when jurying in person. The show looks fabulous, so it's further proof that this method worked very well. On that note, the Board has also been having meetings with the online service, Zoom, which is working very well. So like I say, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade, and that's exactly what this amazing organization is doing to make the necessary changes to keep moving forward.

The SAA 57th Annual Exhibition Awards Banquet at the Hiram Blauvelt

The 2020 SAA Members Exhibition will hopefully take place at the Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum August 29th thru November 1st. The show can be seen online via the SAA Website.

SAA artist Jim Coe demonstrates outside the museum

You too can easily Become A Patron Member of The SAA

Until next time ~ Rachelle Siegrist for the SAA

Paul Rhymer - Member Profile

Society Of Animal Artists Member Profile

Paul Rhymer

Signature Member & Board of Directors

Bronze Sculpture, USA

Paul comes from a family of artists and has drawn and painted his whole life. After receiving an Associate of Arts degree from a local college in 1984, he accepted a job at the Smithsonian Institution doing taxidermy and model making and retired in 2010. As a result of so much three-dimensional work in his museum job, his own personal artwork gradually began to transform from painting and drawing into sculpture. Being an avid birder, waterfowl hunter, and taxidermist gives him constant anatomy and behavioral learning experiences that inspire his sculpture.

Paul’s work has been exhibited in such prestigious art shows such as the National Sculpture Society, the Society of Animal Artists and Birds in Art. His wildlife sculpture is at the National Zoo, National Museum of Natural History, the Denver Zoo, Woodson Art Museum, Hiraim Blauvelt Museum and various public buildings and parks and private collections thought the US. He is on the Boards of Directors for the Society of Animal Artists and the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art.

In May Paul's first monumental bronze of a bighorn sheep was installed in Tulsa, OKlahoma as part of a public art project. Paul was commissioned to do it by NatureWorks Wildlife Art Show after being selected from several entries.

Please visit Paul's website -- www.rhymerstudio.com/

50th Art and the Animal Awards

We would like to take a moment and congratulate all of the artists who have had the honor of being awarded some of the highest honors in the Society of Animal Artists.

The list that follows are those artists in the 

Society of Animal Artists

50^th Annual Members Exhibition 2010

Art and the Animal

Award of Excellence

The Society of Animal Artists has presented its highest honor, the Award of Excellence for those works of art in each SAA Exhibition which are judged to represent the highest standards of artistic excellence.

Robert Bateman
BOWHEAD AND SNOW BUNTINGS -oil
Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada

Charles Allmond
DAYDREAMER - Utah Alabaster
Wilmington, Delaware

Cheryl Gervais Battistelli
WINTER LIGHT -pastel
Whitefish, Ontario Canada

Carel P. Brest van Kempen
RIPARIAN RASHOMON - Acrylic Diptych
Holladay, Utah

Pat Jackman
WINDY DAY BEACH - Colored Pencil
Salem, Oregon

Lars Jonnson
LIVING WITH THE WIND - Oil
Island of Gotland, Sweden

Peter Clinton Gray
GREAT EXPECTATIONS - oil
Cape Town, South Africa

Don Rambadt
SOLSTICE - welded bronze
Trevor, Wisconsin

Sherry Salari Sander
HORSES OF THE MOUNTAIN - bronze
Kalispell, Montana

Sandy Scott
EQUUS FOUND FRAGMENTS I and II - bronze
Lander, WY

Mark Susinno
OVER THE TOP - Oil on Linen
Harrisburg, PA.

Kay Witherspoon
DETERMINATION - Oil on Linen
Englewood, Colorado

Rick Pas
RING NECK II - Acrylic
Lapeer, Mi

HIRAM BLAUVELT MUSEUM ART MUSEUM PURCHASE AWARD

Peter Clinton Gray
GREAT EXPECTATIONS - oil
Cape Town, South Africa

Stephen Quinn
RECLINING BLACK RHINO - bronze
Ridgefield Park, NJ

PATRICIA A. BOTT AWARD FOR CREATIVE EXCELLENCE

Gary Stabb
ATTA - Bronze, Glass, wood
Kearney, Mo

THE EVELYN AND PETER HALLER MEMORIAL AWARD FOR SCULPTURE

Dan Chen
BETWEEN THE RAFTERS - bronze
b. China resides Eugene Oregon

PRESIDENTS AWARD

Jan Martin McGuire
DUST DEVIL - Acrylic on Panel
Bartlesville, Oklahoma

THE LEONARD J. MEISELMAN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR REALISTIC SCULPTURE IN AN ACADEMIC MANNER

Patricia Davis
SUMMER STOCK - bronze
Mancos, Colorado

THE NEWCOMER AWARD FOR A FIRST TIME PARTICIPANT IN THE SAA'S ANNUAL EXHIBITION

Chris McClelland
DUGGA BOY - Graphite and Colored Pencil
Hay, New South Wales

THE ETHOLOGY AWARD FOR THE BEST DEPICITION OF NATURAL BEHAVIOR IN ANY MEDIUM

Linda Besse
BATTLE ROYALE - oil
Mead, WA

SOUTHWEST ARTIST MAGAZINE EDITORS CHOICE

Julie Bell
ALPHA WOLF - Oil on Wood
Allentown, PA.

WESTERN ART COLLECTOR EDITORS CHOICE AWARD

James Coe
WINTER ABSTRACT WITH HERON - Oil on Linen
Hannacroix, NY

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Two Members of the SAA ‘Family’ are gone

A sad message from 
the president of the Society of Animal Artists…

It is with a heavy heart and much sadness that I inform everyone about the recent passing of two Society of Animal Artists family members.

Marijane Singer, long-time Patron member and Director of the Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum in Oradell, NJ, passed away this past Sunday, September 12, 2010.

Long-time Signature member Robert Salo also passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on September 13, 2010. He lived and breathed the SAA, and was responsible for the SAA Art and the Animal tour coming to Estes Park, CO in 2008. His wife, Jeanne, asks that any memorial contributions in his name be made to the Society of Animal Artists. What a wonderful tribute to his spirit and his devotion to our organization!

-Diane Mason

Marijane Singer

Marijane Singer, a cultural and civic volunteer who was director of the Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum in Oradell, a showcase for wildlife art, died Sunday. She was 80.

"We're known internationally but we aren't known locally," Mrs. Singer said in a 2008 interview with The Record, referring to the museum lodged in an 1893 carriage house on the former Blauvelt estate overlooking Kinderkamack Road. "If you aren't into wildlife art, you probably never heard of us."

But wildlife artists heard of Mrs. Singer. She became the museum's director about 25 years ago, after she joined the board of the Blauvelt-Demarest Foundation, a legacy of the philanthropist Hiram Blauvelt. Guy Coheleach, whose work is currently exhibited at the Blauvelt, said Mrs. Singer raised the profile of the museum, one of a handful in the United States dedicated to wildlife art.

"She was influential in getting the Society of Animal Artists, the largest and most proficient group of wildlife artists, to have their annual show at the Blauvelt a couple of times," said Coheleach, of Hobe Sound, Fla. (Read more)

Robert R. Salo

Robert (Bob) Salo's love of nature and wildlife began early. As a boy growing up in Michigan's remote Keweenaw peninsula, Bob spent hours studying and drawing the animals, farms, and forests of that spectacular region.

Following a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, Bob received his first formal art instruction at Meinzinger Art School in Detroit, where he studied under George Rich.

While working for many years as a commercial artist and fine arts illustrator in Detroit and Boston, Bob continued to celebrate his love of nature through wildlife and landscape painting in his free time.

Bob fulfilled a lifelong dream when he moved to the outskirts of Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. In Colorado he perfected his painting skills, devoting his full time to capturing that area's wildlife and scenery on canvas. His work in Boston introduced him to New England's rural charm and seaside beauty.

Bob Salo's paintings can be found in galleries and museums, as well as in private and corporate collections in the United States and abroad. He is a signature artist member of the Society of Animal Artists [SAA], and has been exhibited in the prestigious national tour ARTS for the PARKS numerous times.

Bob's wife Jeanne has requested that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to the Society of Animal Artists, as that was so near-and-dear to Bob's heart. As a member of SAA for nearly 30 years, that is an honor he well deserves.


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