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Can you find the camouflaged images in Judy Larson’s artwork? The paintings in this book have hidden images and the stories that accompany them will give you the clues. Often the concealed image is of a companion, but sometimes it is of an animal that shares the same fate. For example, the Alaskan wolf and the wild horse, both hunted to near extinction; or the great bald eagle—the spirit of freedom—hidden within the painting of a wild horse. Other paintings tell Indian legends and stories of great Native American leaders. The artist’s favorite companions in hidden images are the horse and the wolf, her two most beloved species.
Filled with natural history facts and the Native American way of relating to animals and the environment, the lively free verse by Kathleen Kudlinski gives readers clues to finding the hidden images. Two themes converge in these pictures and stories: the lives of animals in the wild and the fate of Native Americans who lived in harmony with the natural world. The artist’s spectacular scratchboard painting technique is perfect for telling these stories within stories and portraying the beauty of the wilderness and the animals who call it home.
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Naturalist Kathleen Kudlinski is the author of forty books for children. She writes and illustrates an award-winning column for the Sunday New Haven Register. When not writing, hiking, or sketching nature, Kudlinski enjoys speaking at schools, clubs, and conferences. Building on her degree in biology and years of classroom teaching, Kudlinski trained with the Connecticut Commission on the Arts as a “Master Teaching Artist.” She retreats to write in a log cabin she and her husband built in Weathersfield, Vermont. She and her family live in Guilford, Connecticut on the edge of a wild pond.
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Judy Larson always knew she was going to be an artist. She was surrounded by them as a child, and was particularly inspired by her father, a professional illustrator. Judy received a Bachelor of Science degree in Commercial Art from Pacific Union College in Northern California, then spent the next 17 years as a commercial artist, illustrator and art director. In 1988, influenced by her love of nature and animals, Judy devoted her time to wildlife art. Her primary focus in each of her paintings is the animal, with the horse as a recurring subject. Her unique approach to her work is through the use of scratch board--a technique that can render magnificent detail but one requiring infinite patience. Scratch board, an old, but little used medium, consists of a smooth, thin surface of hardened China clay applied to a board. The subject is then painted solidly with black India ink to create a silhouette. Now the exacting work begins, engraving the image into the surface of the artwork. While many artists use steel nibs or engraving tools, Judy prefers to work with X-acto blades, changing them ever few minutes to produce as fine a line as possible. Once the subject has been totally scratched, it is a finished black and white illustration, ready for the artist to add color. The methods of adding color are diverse. Judy prefers a combination of airbrush, gouache or acrylics for finishing, with frequent rescratching for detail. Scratch board is a demanding medium, one that Judy has used masterfully in developing her unique approach to wildlife art.
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To view Horse Indian Wolf as a PDF file, click here.
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