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Wildlife artist Lori Dunn is thrilled to be combining her two interests animals and art. Enrolling in oil painting classes at the age of ten, Lori developed some basic artistic skills that carried her through art classes in high school and university. With a passion and keen interest in animals, however, Lori steered naturally to the sciences. Graduating with a BSc. in Zoology she entered into a 15 year career as a professional zookeeper.
As a zookeeper, Lori has worked with a vast array of animals ranging from the tiniest invertebrates to elephants and gorillas. While she loves to draw any interesting animal, her special area of interest and knowledge is that of reptiles and amphibians. For several years she did the Meet the Snake Keeper presentations at the Toronto zoo and she continues to educate children and adults on the importance of these creatures in our ecosystem. Lori hopes that also through her art she can break down some of the phobias people have about snakes and other reptiles.
These years of experience have given her a unique instinct and perspective for art in the animal world and a deep appreciation for the need to protect habitat and endangered species. As a signature member of "Artists For Conservation", Lori has pledged a percentage of sales on many of her pieces to conservation efforts around the world. In particular she: continues to participate in educational programs teaching kids about the plights of our wild spaces and the species that live there specifically in regards to reptiles and amphibians.initiated and guides an annual "Frog-walk" program for the Millbrook Valley Trail Association. Children and adults learn the different frog calls of native species, how to visually identify them and how to protect native amphibians in this delicate ecosytem. actively participated in the spotted turtle recovery project in Ontario, Canada and continues to educate the public on the plight of native ontario turtles. proceeds from the sale of reproductions of "Charles" and "Ngozi" went directly to CABA, the Canadian Association for Bushmeat Awareness, to aid in fighting the bushmeat trade in Africa.
. continues to provide financial support through the sale of her art for The Canadian Organization of Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation (COTERC) which helps preserve habitat in Costa Rica.
Lori's art tends to focus on some of the more unusual animals in nature and species which are not often seen in art. She particularly loves to draw the "underdogs" of the animal world - the bugs, snakes, spiders and other creatures that need extra help making a case for their survival in our ecosystems. Ironically, her choice of medium is also an "underdog." When most people think of colored pencils, they reflect back on public school and that set of 12 in the plastic pouch! Colored pencils have come along way since then and are now developed with lightfast archival pigments.
People of the art world used to condemn pastels calling them "crayons" until master pastellists founded the Pastel Society in France in 1870 giving due respect to this medium. In 1990 The Colored Pencil Society of America was founded to credit this medium also as a valid form of fine art. As a member of CPSA Lori is aware that it is the only artists' organization that has participated proactively to develop a lightfast standard for its own medium. As a result, high quality artist's grade pencils with exceptional concentrations of lightfast pigment are now being produced in a huge array of colors.
Lori creates her colored pencil paintings from Herpworks Wildlife Art Studio in historic Millbrook, Ontario. Her work is garnering much interest from those seeking something more unusual in the realm of wildlife art.
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