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Larry McQueenLarry McQueen   AFC Larry McQueen
Bird paintings and illustration in watercolor and oil
 
I grew up in the small town of Mifflinburg in central Pennsylvania. Birds fascinated me from the start. With colored pencils, I attempted to draw birds that I observed on early morning forays around the neighborhood. One of the first books my parents gave me was "The Junior Book of Birds" by Roger Peterson, illustrated with a small selection of paintings done by several bird artists of the time. Each illustration in this slender book presents the bird in a full page of habitat. As a child, these images influenced my perceptions of the bird in nature, profoundly. Around the age of ten, I was given two books with impressive artwork: a 1937 edition of reproductions of Audubon's "Birds of America" and another large volume entitled "Birds of America", with illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. I have since studied the original work of these great bird artists, with veneration. The inspiration of others continues and I regard as pivotal, the paintings of the great Swedish wildlife artist, Bruno Liljefors, of early 20th Century.

At age twelve, I was invited to be a founding member of the Bucknell Ornithological Club at Bucknell University, close to my hometown. Involved with regular meetings and field-trips, I was learning about "ornithology" as a subject, and my birding skills greatly improved.

I left the east in the late 50s, graduated from Idaho State University, did a stint in the army, and ultimately settled in Eugene, Oregon, where I studied art and worked in graphic arts and scientific illustration. Finally, in the late 70's, with the encouragement of my wife, I decided to develop a career in painting birds. I contacted Don Eckelberry, whom I considered to be the finest bird illustrator working at that time. Don invited me to visit him at his home in Babylon, N.Y. At his suggestion, I took part in his annual bird-painting workshop at the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad. He then invited me to teach this workshop the following year, which I did.

In 1980, I exhibited a painting at the "Birds in Art" show at Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, that caught the attention of ornithologist/illustrator John P. O'Neill (LSU Museum of Natural Science). John sent me an invitation to help illustrate the Birds of Peru, a project then in its infancy. With this work, my bird painting career was launched.

Although my work is grounded in illustrations for publications, my studio paintings continue to extend my vision of the life and beauty of the bird in nature. My wife and I currently live in Eugene, Oregon.




PUBLISHED ARTWORK
FIELD-GUIDES

1981. Portland Audubon Society, Portland, Oregon. "Familiar Birds of The Northwest", Nehls. Illustrated in part.

1983, Alfred A. Knopf, "The Audubon Society Master Guide to Birding", 3 Volumes, Farrand. A number of paintings used for species lacking photos.

1986, Princeton University Press, "A Guide to the Birds of Colombia", Hilty and Brown. Two plates.

1990, Reader's Digest Association, Inc. "Book of North American Birds" -contributing authors and artists. 38 paintings.

1997, HarperCollins, "All the Birds of North America"; American Bird Conservancy's Field Guide, Griggs. Section including the Vireos, Warblers, Chickadees, Gnatcatchers, Kinglets, and Wrentit; 21 panels.

1999. HarperCollins, Collins Bird Guide: "The Most Complete Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe", Mullarney, Svensson, Zetterstrom, and Grant. Two plates of American species.

2003, Princeton University Press, "Birds of Venezuela", Second Edition, By Steven Hilty, p. 146, one plate re-used from "Birds of Colombia."

2005, Smithsonian Institution with Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. "Birds of South Asia, The Ripley Guide", Rasmussen and Anderton. Volume 1: 24 plates.

2007, "Birds of Peru", Schulenberg, Stotz, Lane, O'Neill, and Parker. Princeton University Press. Principle illustrator.

2008, "The Backyard Birdsong Guide" (A Cornell Lab of Ornithology Audio Field Guide) "Eastern" and "Western", Donald Kroodsma. Chronicle Books. My illustrations recycled from the Cornell posters and others.



PUBLISHED ARTWORK
PERIODICALS

National Audubon Society:
1983, "American Birds", May/June, Cover art: Powerful Woodpeckers.
1986, "Audubon" Vol.88,No.2: p.100 "The Solid-Gold Sphinx" (Williams), watercolor of Prairie Sphynx Moth.
1987, Vol.89,No.1: p.82,83,84,"Riddle of Gettysburg's Vultures" (Daniels), watercolor of vulture roost and watercolor of feeding vultures.
1990: p.74, watercolor of Varied Thrush.

"The Wilson Bulletin": Frontispieces
1983, Vol.95, No.2, Cranioleuca Spinetails
1984, Vol.96, No.4, Nightingale Wrens
2005, Vol.117, No.2, Iquitos Gnatcatcher

"Bird Watcher's Digest":
1993, May/June. Cover art, Anna's Hummingbirds. Also published as an art print, edition of 1000.

"Living Bird" (Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology):
1995, Vol.14, No.4: p.32, "Nature in His Work", Berger, paintings.
1998, Vol.17, No.2: p.24, "lost and Found", Gallagher, illus. of Forest Owlet and Spotted Owlet.

The American Ornithologists' Union
1997, "Ornithological Monographs No.48", Frontispiece for: "Colorimetric and Morphometric Gradients in Colombian Populations of Dusky Antbirds (Cercomacra tyrannina), with Description of a new Species, Cercomacra parkeri." Gary Graves.
"The Auk" (Bulletin of the AOU)
2004, Vol. 121, No.4 Cover art, Acre Antshrikes

"Bulletin of the British Ornithological Club"
1998, 118(3):141, "A New Scops-owl from Great Nicobar Island", Rasmussen. Illus of Serendib Scops-Owl.

"Forktail" (Journal of the Oriental Bird Club)
1998, No.14. Cover painting of two Athene owl species.



PUBLISHED ARTWORK
ECOTOUR CATALOGS

l986,'87,'88, "Field Guides, Incorporated". Wash drawings.

From 1985 to present, annual and semi-annual, "Victor Emanuel Nature Tours", Catalog. Full Cover art.



PUBLISHED ARTWORK
POSTERS

Windsor/Nature Discovery, "Hummingbirds of the United States and Canada", and, "Garden Birds of North America" series: Winter 1, Summer 1, Winter 2.

Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, "Project FeederWatch" Identification posters.



PUBLISHED ARTWORK
WILDLIFE ART IN GENERAL

1980, "National Wildlife", Oct/Nov, "Wildlife Art Comes of Age", Wexler. Painting.

1986, "Twentieth Century Wildlife Artists", Nicholas Hammond. Croom Helm, London

1988, Watson-Guptill Publications, Painting Birds, Susan Rayfield.

1993, Inmerc BV, Wormer / The Netherlands, Portrait of a Living Marsh: 32 International Artists Visit Northeast Poland, Robin D'Arcy Shillcock. Exhibition and book prepared by Artists for Nature Foundation, Bruinehaar, Holland. Six paintings

1998, "Modern Wildlife Painting", Nicholas Hammond. Page 83. Yale University Press.

1999, "Wildlife Art", selection by Alan Singer. Page 86. North Light Books.



PUBLISHED ARTWORK
CD COVER ART

2002, Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. "Songs of the Antbirds" Warbling Antbirds and Gnateater
"Sounds of New World Parrots" Black-headed Parrots.



OTHER PUBLISHED ARTWORK

1985, 1987, and 1988, Intercontinental Philatelics Incorporated; World Wildlife Fund Stamp Collection. Watercolors of various animal species for first day cover. Stamps and Cachets.

1992, Penguin Books Inc., in cooperation with the Massachusetts Audubon Society. The 1993 Bird Identification Calendar, Selected as Audubon Alliance Artist of the Year; featured my painting of Western Tanagers.



PUBLICATIONS FEATURING LARRY MCQUEEN

1995, "Living Bird", Vol.14, No.4: "Nature in His Work", Cynthia Berger.

2007, "Oregon", Vol. 86, No. 4, p. 38, "Birdman of Eugene", Zanne Miller




EXHIBITIONS
Solo

McDonald's Frame and Gallery, Eugene, Oregon.

Washington Abby gallery, Eugene, Oregon.

"Birds by Larry McQueen", Jacobs Room Gallery, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, Eugene, Oregon

Blanden Memorial Art Museum, 920 Third Ave. S., Fort Dodge, Iowa 50501

"Brought to Life", The Gallery at The Register-Guard, Eugene, Or.

"The Spirit of Birds", Knight Law School, University of Oregon, Eugene, Or. Fourteen paintings.

50 paintings and illustrations at the Convention of the American Ornithologica Society, Cooper Ornithological Society, and the Society of Southern Canadian Ornithologists, The Hilton, Portland, Oregon.

"Birds for Books", Knight Law School, University of Oregon, Eugene, Or. Twenty-seven illustration plates prepared for three fieldguides.



EXHIBITIONS
Group

"Bird Art from the Oregon Territory", National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Exhibited with paintings by Jon Jonacek.

Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, Austin, Texas

Sportsman's Edge Gallery and King Gallery, 136 East 74th Street, NYC 10021. Exhibit of illustrations for Reader's Digest Association, "Book of North American Birds".

"Birdscape", Museum of the Hudson Highlands, Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York. paintings by 12 bird artists; 7 paintings.

"Sight and Insight", Oregon Museum of Cultural and Natural History, Eugene, Or., exhibit of scientific illustrations; 2 pieces.

"For The Birds" The Gallery At The Airport, Eugene Airport Terminal, Eugene, Oregon; 4 paintings.

April 25 July 30, l987, The Oakland Museum Natural Sciences Department: Biological Art and Illustration. Oakland, California.

Sep and Oct, 1979 - 82, 84 – 86, 88 - 91, 2000, 2002, "Birds in Art", Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin.
Traveling extensions to these museums:

National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, OH
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland.
British Museum of Natural History, London, England.
Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA
Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MI
Cincinnati Museum of Natural History, Cincinnati, OH.
The High Desert Museum, Bend, OR.
Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, TX.
Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY.
Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, AL
Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI




HONORS and SPECIAL INVITATIONS

Artists for Nature Foundation, 1993.
Invited to Poland with 32 international wildlife artists, for the purpose of publicizing for conservaiton, the only wild wetlands remaining in Europe. The resulting artwork was a travelling exhibit and published in the book, "Portrait of a Living Marsh", by Robin D'Arcy Shillcock.

Selected as "Audubon Alliance Artist of the Year" by Massachusetts Audubon Society. Commissioned painting published in The 1993 Bird Identification Calendar.








 
Support for Conservation:
x
 

Collections:
  • 1988 - Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum
    "Late Cattails with Savannah Sparrow"
    Watercolor, 22 x 18
     

 

 
 
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