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“The greatest part of venturing out into the wilderness,” Rod Frederick observes, “is that you can’t determine what kind experience it will deliver. I took my son to Yellowstone for a special father/son adventure his senior year in high school. Our plan was to track wolves. Soon after we set out we found ourselves enveloped by a herd of the park’s bison. They can range two miles in a day while grazing and we had the treat of a lifetime.”
“On a larger scale, the great migrations that spanned the North American Plains were driven by the buffalo’s never ending quest for food. Their movement was timed to when their primary food source, grass, would be most full of nutrients. Non-competing species such as the Pronghorn Antelope often migrated as well, feeding on a different portion of the stalk or type of grass all together. The relationship between animal and land was symbiotic, the buffalo maintained the Plains, the Plains maintained the buffalo.”
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The serene outdoors seem at odds with the wild and crazy character of this
artist, who is as famous for his paintings as he is for his sense of humor and
gaudy shirts! If seen on his constant excursions into the wilds, many a
collector would tell of an eccentric pirate come to life, only this
swashbuckling, seemingly fearless explorer was more anxious to gain and share
the treasure of knowledge rather than riches.
"I grew up in a house full of pets," he says. "My mom had a degree in fine
arts
and although my dad was a lawyer, he was a weekend painter." So his love of
animals and art was sown early (also inspired when he received a gift of Roger
Tory Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds) and he attended Willamette
University
with a major in art and a minor in biology. "So I could know my subjects
outside and in," he says. He put that education to good use as he embarked on
a
fine art career that would allow him to do what he enjoyed most; explore and
learn.
Frederick built his house in the middle of the Oregon wilderness and filled it
with birds and animals. He’s hiked and camped in mountains and forests
throughout the northwest U.S., Central America and East Africa. He knows the
lakes and mountains as well as he knows the plains and deserts, not to mention
almost all the creatures who live there, from the smallest bird to the largest
elephant. And he will paint them on whatever size canvas suits them best. In
addition to his peaceful views of animals in their natural habitats, he is
also
known for his paintings’ many different sizes and shapes—each chosen to best
suit his perfectly balanced images of wildlife and wilderness.
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