From their bark and leaves to their ecosystems and inhabitants, each tree is unique. The tri-counties (Santa Barbara County, San Luis Obispo County and Ventura County) are home to a diverse range of tree species that make our landscape beautiful. For our 2017 Nature Photography Competition we asked photographers to explore the life cycle of trees, those who call it home, the threats they face, and their individuality.
Read MoreOne could travel through the alphabet when the Wildling showcased a diverse artistic representation of animal species from African saddlebills to zebras and everything in between. The artworks ranged from realistic to abstract and represented many different mediums.
Read MoreThe Wildling Museum of Art & Nature presented its newest exhibition Private Collections of the Santa Barbara Region, comprised of artworks borrowed from the private collections of its members. Visitors were able to experience artworks that were not on public display, and they will got an inside look into how and why collectors choose their pieces.
Read MoreFrom bowls and urns made on a lathe to fine handcrafted furniture, this exhibition has amazing examples of what can be created from local and exotic wood. View a breathtaking 1853 rosewood piano has been repurposed with extreme creativity by Ken Frye into a breathtaking cabinet intermingled with bowls made from a tree that once stood on 2nd Street in Solvang. Explore the exhibit and learn about woodworking methods and interesting facts about wood.
Read MoreAs a fascinating counterpoint to our woodworkers exhibition, we presented the photography of David Paul Bayles. "David Paul Bayles left Los Angeles in the mid seventies for the Sierra Nevada mountains to work one season as a logger. He fell in love with the physicality, the camaraderie and the dangerous work. One season became four as he worked setting chokers, bumping knots and skinning cat. To this day he struggles to answer how he could love trees and forests even as he loved the work that brought them down.
Read MoreThe Wildling Museum of Art and Nature has a small and diverse permanent art collection. The works in this exhibition are the majority of our painting collection with a few of our special prints included. Almost all of the works were received as gifts, for which we are very grateful. Works date from as early as 1918 to the 2010s and represent sweeping vistas like Henry Breuer’s large panoramic painting to more intimate moments, like Ray Strong’s small canvas of a flowering plum tree.
Read MoreThe Wildling Museum of Art and Nature and the Southern California Artists Painting for the Environment (SCAPE) presented Places of the Heart, a juried exhibition and sale celebrating treasured places in the tri-county area. Guided by input from the community, members of SCAPE painted in locations through the San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties. The plein air works showcased the amazing natural features of our region and the talent of the SCAPE artists.
Read MoreAnswering the call to artists, over 100 entries were received in response to 2016's theme of Where Land Meets Water. The judges carefully selected the top works to create an exhibition displaying a wide range of interpretations of the theme. From puddles to ice to the ocean, the photographers found amazing examples of the connection of land and water.
Read MoreCelebrating the National Parks of California explored nine national parks located within the state of California through a juried exhibition: Joshua Tree, Yosemite, Redwood, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Lassen, Pinnacles, Death Valley and Channel Islands (there are a total of 27 monuments, parks, seashores and more administered and preserved by the National Park Service. The show celebrated and discussed wilderness, nature and preservation of the parks and provided an opportunity for artists to display and sell their work. Fifty-one artworks in a wide range of mediums and styles were included in the diverse show .
Read MoreKaren Sinsheimer at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, this exhibition was a tribute to Karen’s skills and legacy as a curator of photography as well as her volunteer efforts to the Wildling Museum in the capacity of a long-time exhibitions and art committee member.Karen’s discerning eye helped to amass an important collection of photography at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, an amazing legacy for the greater Santa Barbara community and she helped the Wildling find artists for exhibitions and the permanent collection.
Read MoreThe exhibition captured the beauty of the California coast from Mendocino, Point Reyes, and the San Francisco Bay down through Carmel, Big Sur, Santa Barbara, and Santa Monica. Woodcut artist Tom Killion’s prints combine exquisite color with dynamic composition to portray the coast’s ever-changing moods and diverse formations: storm tides crashing at Point Lobos, serene moonlit coves at Mendocino, fog encircling the Golden Gate Bridge.
Read MoreDr. F.G. Hochberg has been printing natural subjects for over 45 years. Eric’s studies capture and isolate in space the elegant and delicate beauty of nature. The works presented here have been selected to demonstrate a wide range of subjects and techniques used to create images of nature. Shane & Genny Anderson were first introduced to the art of nature printing when they took a workshop from Eric Hochberg at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Since then, they both have been captivated with the art form.
Read MoreThis Wildling curated exhibition explored the changing landscape of the tri-county area (Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo) through both historic and contemporary artwork. The Santa Barbara Region is beautiful, historic, and ever changing. Artists have been recording it for decades–some use their work to inspire a conservation ethic in hopes that specific open spaces will be preserved for future generations to enjoy.
Read MoreEvery year the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum hosts a juried competition of the finest bird art in the world. After they debut the final selections at the Woodson Art Museum in September, they begin traveling the show for the next year. In 2014, we hosted Birds in Art. The artwork was amazingly diverse: sculpture, watercolor, acrylic, block prints, and oil were all included.
Read MoreRay Strong was born in 1905 in Corvallis, Oregon. His long life spanned 101 years and so he saw tremendous technological and societal changes during his lifetime, but he never strayed far or long from his commitment to painting the landscape and in so doing recorded our natural heritage like almost no one else in our region.
Read MoreRichard Salas is a California native with a lifelong passion for diving and the underwater world. A graduate from Brooks Institute of Photography, he was mentored by Ernest Brooks II. In this show you swam along with Salas as he traveled from the Equator to Alaska visiting the creatures that call the Pacific Ocean home.
Read MoreThe Wildling Museum collaborated with Return to Freedom Wild Horse Sanctuary to produce an exhibition of the art of wild horses, and celebrating the wild spirit in all horses. The exhibition featured historic and contemporary art of horses in a variety of mediums: paintings, drawings, mosaics, photographs, sculptures, and prints. Both local and nationally regarded artists were featured in this unique exhibition.
Read MoreCharley Harper infused much of his work with a delightful sense of humor, and although he reduced animal forms to abstracted, geometric shapes, he never lost the essence of whichever species he was highlighting. His simplified forms and bold color belied his careful study of animals. Not only did the show feature 30 of his amazing artworks, but also several hands-on, interactive stations were included, which made this a very family friendly show!
Read MoreJeff Jones’s love for and understanding of the natural world, coupled with decades of experience in remote back country and wild places, form the foundation for his exceptional landscape photography. His highly detailed large-scale panoramic images combine a compelling sense of place with an immediacy of experience. Jeff’s work opens up for us a world not of our making and far greater than our own creations.
Read MoreThe Wildling organized this exciting show celebrating art's role in helping to bring attention to the natural treasures of the West. Artist John Fery was a prolific painter of the wilderness, in part due to his commissions for the the Great Northern Railway (GNR). He painted over 300 canvases during his time with GNR.
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