ICFC Cover Artists

Artists

2023 report cover

Tracy Taylor

Tracy has studied and painted birds for as long as she can remember. Combining her BS in Biology from Ursinus College and her love of art, she has rendered award winning scientific illustrations of natural subjects on postage stamps, field guides, nature magazines, and even a new zoo exhibit of Harpy Eagles in Panama. Early in her career, Tracy painted a tropical Zig-Zag Heron, and was awarded the George M. Sutton Award for Outstanding Bird Illustration. Trips with the Academy of Natural Sciences to remote rainforests fueled her interest in tropical birds where she documented habitat for the Cloud-forest Pygmy-Owl, on the cover of the Auk. She has worked as a birdwatching guide for resorts in the southwest and is currently writing and illustrating a book on bird behavior.

2022 report cover

Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen

Carel Brest van Kempen's artistic mission has always been to deepen awareness of the natural world and how it functions. His work has been exhibited in venues on five continents, including the Smithsonian, the British Museum and the National Museum of Taiwan. In addition to creating fine art, Carel is a freelance natural science illustrator. He writes and blogs about natural history topics and authored the book Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding. He is currently working on a field guide to the birds of Utah. Carel lives in Utah.

2021 report cover

Leon van der Linden

Leon R. van der Linden studied biology at the State University of Utrecht, but in 1990 he decided to be a fulltime wildlife artist. Léon’s realistic painting style captures the natural world with a passionate, elegant and respectful look, and encourages the viewer to closely observe the natural world. His favourite subjects are birds of prey, owls, hornbills, parrots and birds of paradise. He lives in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

2020 report cover

Michael DiGiorgio

Michael DiGiorgio is a nationally recognized artist who has traveled throughout United States, the West Indies and South America to sketch and paint birds and plant life. He won the first ever endowment award from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in recognition of his Bird Illustration work. He is currently illustrating plates for a new guide to Brazil with Robert Ridgley and Guy Tudor, as well as the Hawaiian bird entries for the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. Mike lives in Madison, CT.

2019 report cover

Candy McManiman

Candy has been honing her art and photography skills for years. As a Signature member of the Artists for Conservation and member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, she tries to channel her artistic talent to inspire others to appreciate wildlife. Candy lives in Union, Ontario (near Port Stanley) and is an avid observer of nature at home and internationally.

2018 report cover

Eric van der Aa

Eric van der Aa has been fascinated by nature—birds in particular--since he was seven. His studies in landscape architecture at Wageningen University required watercolours which led him back to birds. Watercolour was ideal for fast recording of impressions and images and forced him to watch accurately and divide essentials from nonessentials quickly. Some of these paintings have been purchased by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausa, Wisconsin. Eric lives in Gouda, The Netherlands.

2017 report cover

Larry McQueen

Larry McQueen grew up in the small town of Mifflinburg in central Pennsylvania. Birds fascinated him from the start. In his youth he was inspired by artists John James Audubon and Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and later by the great Swedish wildlife artist Bruno Liljefors. He developed a career painting birds and by the 1980s, his work appeared regularly in National Audubon publications and he began art work for The Birds of Peru. Larry and his wife live in Eugene, Oregon.

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