Inside Their Worlds

Bruce Lawes was the Grand Prize award winner in International Artist magazine’s Challenge No. 123, Wildlife.

“Through my art I try to evoke your emotion for wildlife and our natural world...I seek out worthy programs to use my abilities to raise awareness and much-needed funds,” says wildlife artist Bruce K. Lawes, whose work is collected internationally. “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.” He adds, “As my friend Dr. Jane Goodall said to me, ‘Only if we care, will we help.’”Frozen in Time, oil on li

Lawes is a signature member of the Artists for Conservation, Society of Animal Artists and Oil Painters of America and has shown his work in a number of museums including the Eiteljorg Museum, Houston Museum of Natural Science, The Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, Brookgreen Gardens, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and George A. Spiva Center for the Arts, and this September, the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Lawes has had his work auctioned off in the prestigious Coeur d’Alene Art Auction and in the Jackson Hole Art Auction.A Loving Touch, oil on linen, 16 x 20"

His oil paintings are realistic renderings of beasts from across the world. They capture a specific moment in time for each animal, opening our eyes to this idea that every creature has its own complex, nuanced life.

In A Loving Touch, two elephants nuzzle one another in a moment that reads genuine affection. “This painting of African elephants represents the pure bond they display with each other that we can relate human emotions to their love for family,” says Lawes. “The painting depicts their interlocked bodies in this composition that leads the eye around the seemingly endless wrinkles dappled with light...Their skin can look like mini landscapes with the cracks, hills and valleys, a challenge to paint as the texture is achieved much like how you paint dried up earth.”Ladies at Leisure, oil on linen, 9 x 18"

Winter Rose, oil on linen, 12 x 10"Ladies at Leisure offers a glimpse into the more lackadaisical side of life for two cheetahs—big cats ordinarily seen amid a hunt. “This painting was done of two cheetah sisters lounging leisurely on the dried grasses of the Serengeti in Africa. The yawning sister fosters a somewhat inquisitive stare from her sister as though she is wondering what all the fuss is about,” Lawes says of the piece. “This painting posed some challenges with the grass as the painting is not very large, so depicting the three-dimensional effect was more difficult than a larger painting. Robert Bateman taught me to paint in the holes between the grass and apply more grass over the holes, layering to create depth.”Searching the Shadows, oil on linen, 24 x 36"

An American bison looks directly at the viewer through the bitter cold, his fur flecked with snow, in Frozen in Time. “The title was selected to not only express the cold temperature but also to convey the historic icon the bison represents and that the painting could be of an animal from present day to hundreds of years ago as though frozen in time,” the artist explains. Only Have Eyes for You, oil on linen, 22 x 14"

Lawes has recieved numerous prestigious awards and achievements throughout the years. He is represented by Settlers West Galleries in Tucson, Arizona; Trailside Galleries in Jackson, Wyoming; Broadmoor Galleries in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Montana Trails Gallery in Bozeman, Montana; and The Plainsmen Gallery in Dunedin, Florida. —