Videos
There were three videos playing in the museum's theatre gallery. I chose to watch the Robert Bateman: Artist in the Wild documentary, since he is a very well know conservation artist. The first thing I noticed about the film was how poetic it was, with soft music and a panorama slideshow of his art. It showed him teaching natural history and painting in the woods. He lives off Vancouver Island, in a remote area with a ton of wildlife. I think he got inspired by birds there, for I saw some amazing bird paintings in the galleries by him. He is a true naturalist, and the video really portrays this well. I think just through the personal interviews the press had with him, you can sense his true adoration and connection with nature. When you see his work, there is a great deal of resonance; it feels like you see know his animals. He is very aware of the impermanence of nature, which I think a lot of wildlife artists tend to breeze over.
The most powerful section of this 30 minute documentary was watching him work on a piece commissioned for the NMWA. It is the museum's most astonishing work, I think. 71 X 98 inches, it is definitely the largest painting in the collection, and sits in the center of the Bison gallery. The video shows his work on this piece, and you see his rythem transfer onto the canvas. It was stunning to watch how confident he was in spraying over half of the work with raw ochre paint to create an illusion of dust. This work is a masterpiece.
Copyright NMWA.
This video relates specifically to the concepts and deepest truths of wildlife art. Bateman talks about his deep love for depicting wildlife and the variety that he has with theh subject. There is a vast variety of styles and animals in the museum. Its purpose was really to show viewers a background of a very important contemporary wildlife artist featured in the museum. Bateman talks about how abstraction doesn't really fit in well with wildlife because of all the particularities and varieties with each species. I think it interesting that there is only one abstract wildlife artist in the entire collection of over 4000 works. The gentleness of the film touched on Bateman's own personality. The viewer sees how important a love for all life is in wildlife art.
A video I think would be useful at the museum would be a conservation video, focused on certain species that have, or will be endangered soon, and the habitats and other species that will fall with them. There should be a little bit more emphasis on human impact and wildlife. I think it is a very important issue at this time in our country. We should be more aware about our linking heritage to nature.