Nature Art Gallery features the dean of rainforest painters: Richard Sloan

January 6, 2003
For Immediate Release
For arts editors
Contact: Marjorie Terry (919) 733-7450, ext. 305

(RALEIGH)—The Nature Art Gallery at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences presents the acrylic paintings of Richard Sloan, nationally recognized rainforest artist, from January 9 to February 17. The exhibit includes more than 25 of Sloan’s deep pigment paintings of macaws, tigers, rhinoceros, hornbills and jaguars, richly saturated in the purples, greens and golds of the rainforest.

Naturalist, author and wildlife artist, the late Roger Tory Peterson, said of Sloan’s work: “Richard Sloan has painted the world’s rainforests with accuracy, creativity and passion for his subject. He truly captures the spirit and essence of the place and its inhabitants.”

Considered the dean of rainforest painters, Chicago native Richard Sloan attended the American Academy of Art and worked as an advertising illustrator and zoo staff artist before embarking a lifetime journey of capturing the world’s rainforests in paint. Since his first trip to British Guiana in 1969, Sloan has made 16 expeditions to the Amazon Basin, the Peruvian Andes, Guatemala, Trinidad, Tobago, Belize and the Yucatan peninsula.

Sloan’s paintings have been exhibited at the National Geographic Society’s Explorer’s Hall, the American Museum of Natural History, the California Academy of Sciences, the Carnegie Museum, the Royal Scottish Museum and the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. Since 1979, Sloan’s work has been included in 21 “Birds in Art” exhibitions at the Woodson Art Museum, where he was honored as the museum’s Master Wildlife Artist in 1994.

Sloan has been commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund to design postage stamps and first-day covers for Trinidad, Tobago, Guatemala, the Philippines and the Falkland Islands. His works appear in many publications including the magazines Reader’s Digest, Wildlife Art and US Art, and the books The Raptors of Arizona, Wildlife Art: More Paintings of the Modern Masters and The Best of Wildlife Art, volumes 1 and 2.

Sloan’s works are included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Illinois State Museum, the Denver Museum of Natural History and private collections throughout North America, South America, Europe and Japan.

The Nature Gallery, inside the Museum Store, hosts new exhibitions by Southern artists every six weeks. All exhibited art is for sale. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4:45 p.m.; and the first Friday of each month until 7 p.m. Admission is free. For a complete schedule of Nature Gallery exhibits, please visit www.naturalsciences.org or call the Museum Store at 919/733-7450, ext. 369.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in downtown Raleigh, documents and interprets the natural history of the state of North Carolina through exhibits, research, collections, publications, and educational programming. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sun., noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Visit the Museum on the web at www.naturalsciences.org. The Museum is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr., Secretary.

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