Al Agnew
To view an Al Agnew original is to be given the gift of a moment suspended in time. Nature artist Al Agnew captures the essence of wildlife, wild country, and wild rivers, focusing all his attention on his subjects with the intensity of the predators he loves depicting in his paintings.
Whether on a remote trip to Africa and Alaska, roaming the back country of Montana and Wyoming, or wading a rushing trout stream with fly rod in hand, the sights, experiences, and even the air he breathes are channeled from his mind and memory to the stroke of his brush on canvas.
Agnew's knowledge and his respect for wildlife are evident in the exquisite depiction of anatomy, action, and habitat in each subject he paints.
It is this love and respect for the wildlife, combined with his extraordinary skill of interpretation that has earned him numerous awards and accolades throughout his 30 plus year career as an artist.
He has been designated as featured artist at nearly all the most prestigious national art shows across North America, and has exhibited internationally, including Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's “Birds in Art” and “Animals, the Artist View” exhibits and the Society of Animal Artists “Art and the Animal” annual exhibit. His work has been featured in many of the major art publications, along with sporting magazines such as Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, In-Fisherman, Sporting Classics, and North American Fisherman. It has even graced many of the covers of the most popular fishing magazine in Russia.
Agnew is an avid conservationist, and his work has raised millions of dollars to benefit wildlife and wild lands preservation through such organizations as Ducks Unlimited, the National Wild Turkey Federation, The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and the Wolf Recovery Project, along with benefit shows such as the National Zoo Wildlife Art Show in Washington D.C.
In addition to his renown as a wildlife artist, Agnew is an acknowledged expert angler and canoeist, and it is no surprise that fish, fishing, and wild rivers are also major subject matter areas in his artwork. His originals of fly fishing scenes are highly sought after, and he is one of the top fish artists in the world. Bass Pro Shops has commissioned him to produce well over 100 catalog covers, and his fish illustrations have been used in a number of books and other publications.
A versatile artist, Agnew began his career painting in transparent watercolor, and through the years has also produced artwork in pen, pencil, scratchboard, and acrylics, but more recently has painted almost exclusively in oils. His museum quality original works are sought after by collectors around the world.
When they are not traveling, Agnew and his wife Mary reside half each year at their home on the banks of the Yellowstone River in Montana, where his studio is a restored log cabin overlooking a beautiful stretch of trout water, and the other half at their long time home in the rugged, rolling hills of the Ozarks of Missouri.