Featured Artist Bruce K. Lawes

Artist Bruce K. Lawes works to raise awareness of our natural world through his incredibly realistic and evocative wildlife paintings. Find more of his portfolio on his website.

 

 

If you are a realist like I am, it is the last two percent of effort that makes you stand out among other artists.

 

 

As to style, I would call myself a realist painter, but I modify my execution to suit how I want to express the final painting. I will sometimes add some impressionistic qualities to create interest in the composition.

 

 

For example, softening out certain parts around the main subject pulls your eye into the higher detail. Doing this creates an interesting tension between the background and the main subject, as you see in my painting, ‘Bathing in Glory.’

 

 

Through my art I try to evoke your emotion for wildlife and our natural world and create opportunities for conservation and awareness with your help. I seek out worthy programs to use my abilities to raise awareness and much needed funds.

 

 

I use my storytelling to attract people to the love of our natural world, where they too may protect it and keep it safe, for the generations that follow. As my friend Dr. Jane Goodall said to me, “Only if we care, will we help.”

 

 

I have dedicated my life to art, but more importantly, my art has become a vehicle to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the protection of the animals I paint.

 

 

I continue to work with Dr. Jane Goodall and I have pledged to raise her one million dollars in the coming years to support her efforts in conservation.

 

 

I am presently planning out one of my largest paintings to date—a 6’ x 7’ painting of two charging bull elephants—that will be auctioned off, all in the name of conservation, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Jane Goodall Institute.

 

 

Even though most people would assume I am solely a wildlife artist, there are occasions where I have explored other subject matter because it influenced me, or out of interest or as a result of what I refer to as circumstance.

 

 

The circumstance could be a corporate commission or fundraising project or perhaps even a current or historical event. For example, I have done historical paintings of the Civil War. One in particular, ‘Custer Before the Storm’, was auctioned off at the prestigious Coeur d’Alene art auction. This painting is also being featured on the cover of a hardcover book by historian writer, Adolfo Ovies.

 

 

In summary, I paint to help all I can, and fortunately, this has given my work great purpose. I like to say, I create for something bigger than one person represents, the good of all creatures.

 

Artist Bruce K. Lawes invites you to follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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