Edward Aldrich
From the Wild
Artist Reception and Gallery Talk:
Saturday, October 4, 2014, 2-5 pm
Edward Aldrich is an artist dedicated to reaching beyond the realistic rendering of wildlife and the natural world. He is convinced that conveying the inherent being of an animal is integral to his work. His style breathes life into his subjects and invokes the viewer into feeling that he or she is actually a witness to the scene. The viewer is not left to simply look and appreciate, but is drawn into experiencing the essence of what is depicted. In short, his is an art of feeling as well as portrayal.
Please Join Us For This Exciting Featured Artist Exhibition.
Showing Through October 25, 2014
Truly exceptional wildlife art isn’t only about seeing, it’s also about believing.
Evergreen Fine Art Gallery’s truly exceptional exhibit “From the Wild” can be seen beginning on Oct. 4, and will
give lovers of wildlife art a world of natural wonders to believe in. Nearly two dozen spellbinding oils will offer
intimate introductions to many of the West’s most reclusive inhabitants, each one faithfully captured in an
unguarded moment by one of the West’s most accomplished wildlife painters, Edward ‘Ned’ Aldrich.
“Ned’s work speaks to the souls of his subjects,” says Evergreen Fine Art’s exhibitions director, Doug Kacena.
“His reverence for the natural world is clearly reflected in his striking depictions of the Rocky Mountain wildlife.”
Indeed, Aldrich’s exquisite paintings transcend mere portraiture on many levels, starting with his devotion to
detail. In his work one can feel the coarse softness of the wolf’s winter coat, sense the stalking mountain lion’s
taut anticipation, and hear the wild aggression in the bull elk’s challenge. Completing that almost magnetic
connection between beholder and beheld, he provides for each subject a setting every inch as authentic and
evocative as its focus.
“My style is certainly realism,” says Aldrich, who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1987
and was juried into the Society of Animal Artists just four years later at the age of 26. “I’ve experimented with
varying approaches to painting, some looser and more impressionistic, some more photo-realistic. Some of my
paintings will be more ‘brushy’, or ‘painterly’ as I explore the medium, but the core of the paintings is always
more realistic.”
Although conversant in bronze and with several paint media, Aldrich finds the phenomenal flexibility of oil paint
essential to his exacting artistic style. And while he’s painted indigenous fauna from Arizona to Africa, the
Golden resident prefers the company of those beasts native to the Rocky Mountain Empire.
“I’ve taken trips to all sorts of national parks and various open spaces, but many of the animal shots come from
zoos, animal parks, and, more often, walks with my dog around the neighborhood,” Aldrich explains. “I’ll then
combine animals with settings from different trips to come up with interesting overall scenes.”
If his talent for breathing life into creatures on canvas has earned him a permanent home in published volumes
and prestigious collections across the country, and netted high honors from art associations on three continents,
it’s probably because painting wild animals is simply his nature.
“I’ve always loved wildlife and animals of all kinds,” he says. “Even in grade school, way before I knew there
were ‘wildlife artists’, I did small paintings of animals in landscapes. When I found out there were artists making
a living painting animals and landscapes, there was no other path for me.”
“I hope ‘From the Wild’ gives people a sense of the wonder and beauty of the natural world and its inhabitants.”
“From the Wild” begins with an Artist Reception and Gallery Talk from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4,
2014, at Evergreen Fine Art Gallery. The exhibit will run through Oct. 25. Evergreen Fine Art is located at 3042
Evergreen Parkway in Evergreen.
To learn more about Evergreen Fine Art Gallery, call 303-679-3610.