I think it's important for all human beings to get out of nature once in a while.

See the white tail where we got one, two, three, three.

But you just go.

You go to your local park or, you know, on a on a hiking trail just for a little bit and just tone down, you know, the noise of your life and just listen to the birds.

You know, listen to, you know, the squirrels rustling in the leaves, smell the leaves of fall, spring, you know, incredible great times a year just to go for for a nice walk, a nice gray winter coats blend right in with all the trees.

I'm Jan Martin Maguire.

I am a wildlife artist.

I live in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

I've been painting professionally about 20 years.

Yeah, that's a good place to go.

Geez, I love the contrast there of this.

The green cedar trees that have that nice.

My interest has always been animals, you know, I've never, you know, gone astray and drawn, horses, buildings, people.

Although you know, in college, I did do some live drawing and did people and now it's I sort of think of it as comparative anatomy, you know, compare, you know, the way bone structure is on a human being, the way it would be on an animal when I'm understanding the way an animal is put together.

But again, you know, my interest has just always been animals.

And that's what, you know, when I'm not painting, it's a nice branches close the branches for birds to sit on and painting.

That's what I'm watching on TV, you know, and watching PBS and the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet and, you know, watching videos.

I'm reading books, on wildlife.

And that's just always been what my interest is.

And then that's what gives me the passion then to depict it in my art.

Right.

Go back to the cage, Linus.

Let's go to the studio lobby.

After one good bird.

An artist studio is very usually a reflection of who they are.

And for me, my love of animals is very evident.

I've got my little zoo in here.

This is Linus, my blue and gold macaw And we've got Zoe the cockatoo.

Yeah.

Come on.

Who's afraid of the camera?

You're all right.

That's a good girl.

Yes.

Oh.

And of course, we've got Oreo here waiting for me to get started painting, keeping my chair warm for me.

We've got my, African leopard tortoise.

Chewy.

Chewy is leopard in Swahili, so her name is actually Chewy Polly, which is Slow leopard because she's a tortoise.

And then we've got another little critter down here.

This is Amadeus.

He's a boa constrictor.

The only reason I have a glove on is because he's a very enthusiastic eater, and he likes to eat mice, and he doesn't know whether I'm bringing a mouse in or my hand.

So what?

I use these animals a lot when I'm giving talks to schoolchildren, about animals and rainforest and Africa or whatever it is I'm talking about at the time.

This is a wildebeest hide.

I utilize hides and skulls in my work.

For reference and understanding the anatomy, but.

But also, for conservation purposes.

People are sometimes surprised about this aspect of certain countries, particularly Zimbabwe, where I got these, to help the natives conserve wildlife.

They have to understand that the animal has some value, so they're allowed to kill certain animals.

Certain number of them, they eat the meat and then they sell the hides.

And when people like me buy the hides, it teaches them that there's value to the animals, and then that that's their worst conserving.

So, it's I use them in my work, and then I also help preserve them in sort of a roundabout type of way.

I utilize a lot of, skulls and skins.

This is a little taxidermy bird.

This is an African bird called the crown plover.

Lots of the different skulls.

An ostrich skull, kangaroo skull.

A friend of mine from Australia sent me.

Got, a couple of geese from North America.

This is a snow goose, the white one.

And I've got, wolf and fox, pelts again.

I use those so that I can understand the hair, the way the hair lies, the color of the fur, the texture of the fur.

So utilize those in my in my work as well.

You know, and I've always believed that the best art comes from the heart.

And to paint what you love, what you know, what you understand?

And that's one of the things that's so interesting for me is that I wake up every morning excited.

There's something else in nature that I'm going to want to depict.

And there's it's so varied.

I've never allowed myself to be put into a box or she's a bird painter or, you know, whatever I paint, you know, little songbirds one day, and then the next day I'm painting rhinoceroses, you know, just back and forth, different times a year, different habitat, different places in the world.

What I say is, is being a wildlife artist, what I am, you know, that's what I think about all the time.

Nature and wildlife as well as my as well as my art.

Hey, guys.

And the paint.

Hey, Oreo, gonna help me paint today?

See if we can get this painting finished.

Since we've got that big exhibit coming up in Charleston.

As a wildlife artist, I. I think the purpose of my work and the goal of what I'm trying to achieve is to give people a window into nature, an accurate, real view into nature.

But it's not just, a photograph.

As an artist, I trying to create a feeling, a mood, by placing the animals in certain positions, certain times, a year, certain color, certain lighting.

You know, I'm putting all of those into my thoughts as I'm composing the painting to do.

I love the textures of nature.

You know, there are some artists that are even more detailed than I am, and I admire their work.

And there's some artists that are much looser than I am, and I admire their work.

You know, you just who you are.

And there are times where I think, oh, you know, maybe I should try to loosen up my brushstrokes.

But, you know, there's the minutia of of nature, the little lichens, a little pine needles, a little, you know, the textures of the rocks, the the sponginess of the moss.

I can't leave it alone, you know, I'll start painting it, and I just, you know, there's something about it that I just want to depict it accurately.

So I'll, you know, just, you know, keep working on that and, and I'll find that as interestin I work from, a variety of photographs.

These are all photos that I just took from our last trip to Africa.

And we just got back a couple weeks ago to do what they're trying.

Look, one, being a naturalist, I think it's really important to understand my subjects as much as possible.

Study them in the wild as much as possible.

So for the first 15 years of my career, I only painted North America.

You know, I went to Alaska and Yellowstone, Everglades, things like that.

And then people kept got all you need to go to Africa.

You need to go to Africa, like, you know, okay, whatever.

So I finally started researching it, spent time, you know, it took me about three years to plan out.

The trip went.

I've been back every year since then.

I mean, Africa is an amazing place.

I talk to people all the time.

That's been.

And we can't figure out the words that will convey it to people who haven't been.

There's almost something that speaks to your DNA when you go there.

It's the sounds, the smell, the light.

There's just something about it that you just feel like, you know, you're comfortable there, you belong there, that you're home to.

The essence of field sketching is to just try to get a quick impression as quickly as possible.

One of the interesting things about this being my honeymoon, it was probably my best trip to Africa yet.

I've traveled to several different countries.

I prefer Kenya for my purposes.

There is no hunting in the country, so the animals are very acclimated to photography and sketching.

As long as you're in the vehicle, they consider you as part of the environment.

You know, that's the problem.

I mean, I took well, we took both of us took 150 rolls of film, 36 exposure each.

Now, you know, granted, I'm taking some pictures of habitat.

I'm taking some branches, some rocks, whatever.

But that's a lot of pictures.

And so I'll just file those away.

And, you know, ten years from now, I may be, you know, pulling out some of those same, same ideas.

Okay.

When I first came, we first got back how we'd actually seen several things while we were there that we turned to each other and said, you know, that's going to make a great painting, one of which was, some African Cape buffalo.

And they always have this look on their face that they're just, you know, really, you know, ticked about something and we had taken some pictures of a couple of them, and one of them was we took his picture.

He turned back and look at us over his shoulder, and the look on his face was so great.

We both said, right then, okay, we're going to do this painting and we're going to call it dirty looks for those who have been to Africa, you know, they just are drawn right to it.

And they, you know, all say, oh, you know, you've just, you know, hit the nail on the head.

They've, you know, just perfect the way they look.

You know, they're not, you know, soft, cuddly cows.

They're very, very dangerous, very aggressive, very cranky animals.

And that's, you know, pretty much what I was trying to do in the painting.

So it's it's very rewarding, as they said, when we would try on the set.

In my work, in my career, there's a lot of different paths that that artists can choose and how they go about making a living with their work.

And there's something that's just unbelievably special, and neat about meeting the people who ultimately give homes to my children, if you will.

Hey, ho.

Jan, how are you?

You got the book?

Yeah.

Got to see it.

Yeah, it really turned out well.

Well, good.

I expected it would.

Yeah, exactly.

And I have artists that say to me, oh, you know, gosh, how could you do that business stuff?

You know, selling.

But to me, what they do is almost more of a business, like when they send it off to a gallery and they never see who buys it, never meet who buys it.

Don't get that input from the people.

And when you meet these people, they they tend to become your friends.

They tend to become repeat collectors, such as, the Luitweiler’s.

You know, working on it for a year.

And it's hard to visualize how they're going to put the slides together with what I'm writing.

And let me take, oh, put a nice little note there.

Yeah.

They're such wonderful people.

They they love my work so much, and they appreciate it so much that it's a joy to be around them.

It's a joy to be in their home and see my work and other artists work.

Well, let's let's go look at this compared to the original, because I think, I think it turned out really well to know that it brings such joy to their lives gives meaning to my work.

And that I know it's not just something that someone's bought because it matches their couch, you know, or something like that.

You know, it's it's something that they that they really appreciate.

With wolves, they're so curious here.

I've actually got a little tiny sketchbook, but I have to keep it hidden from him or he will steal it from me.

Overall, I think her paintings are awesome.

We had a living room, and like many people, we just didn't use it very often.

And we were getting so many originals of Jan's that we couldn't figure out a way to display them well.

So my wife decided to repaint the room and put in some additional lighting and put in more comfortable furniture.

You can see we've been working on.

Wow, it looks great!

Your painting is the centerpiece here.

Oh, I haven't seen it hung.

It looks fantastic.

Look at that.

And the whole effect is just really beautiful, which really sets it off.

Don't have the floor done yet.

We've got to put in a hardwood floor, but it really makes the whole place a lot warmer, a lot friendlier.

Having the paintings in the new color of the walls.

Yeah, it looks great.

They ownn over 50 of my paintings and that's, you know, the special to me, because sometimes when I do doubt the relevance of my work and the importance of my work, when I think of the Luitweiler’s or people like them, the to know that they are committing so much, time and money and effort and wall space and room to my artwork, that there is an importance to them that gives me you know, validation of my work and it makes it, you know, it makes it worthwhile.

I know.

We're in the rainforest exhibit at the Tulsa Zoo, and this little common marmoset is being quite cooperative.

Little small, one of the smallest primates.

I go out to nature melodic, and even when I go say, for instance, to the rainforest, I'm experiencing the moment I'm experiencing the habitat.

But the animals are very difficult to see, very shy, very elusive, lots of thick foliage in the rainforest.

So I have to utilize captive animals, such as in zoological park.

So zoos, I think are great.

I spend a lot of time in them.

Now, here we've got a lion head of tamarin.

Another one of the little primates.

Extremely rare.

I haven't done a lot of primates yet.

You know, there's so much in nature, there's so many things I'm interested in.

And I'd like to know as much as I can about my subjects before I paint them.

And I haven't had an opportunity to study primates as much as I'd like.

And, and that's something that I plan to do in the near future.

It's very, very difficult work.

It's very emotionally grueling work.

So sometimes you'll reach a point in a painting where you just, you know, you just can't stand it anymore.

You make it go sit in a corner, you put it, turn it backwards, set it in the corner, and you go outside and go to the zoo.

You know, by the time you're finished walking through the zoo, watching the animals, you know, you feel much better.

You come back, you turn of the painting around, and, you know, lo and behold, looks like some little elves have painted on it.

Suddenly it doesn't look so bad.

You've got a better attitude.

You can get right back to work on it.

She said, we need to do a little bit of editing on the children's book.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you, they sent the, catalog.

They're changing the cover to the zebra.

James and I are working on a project together.

That's really fun.

It's another thing that.

That's nice.

You know, being able to work with your spouse and having the same interests.

We're doing a children's book.

It's called Friendships in Nature.

And it's it's for very young children all the way up to a little bit older children.

It's actually divided into sections.

It's, it's about symbiotic relationships, although we don't really use that term much.

And that's just the way that animals and plants benefit each other.

In the world of nature.

And it's it's using my art, my finished paintings.

It's not done as is.

Illustrations are my finished, you know, complete paintings.

So I think that's important that they grow up and understand, about animals and nature and wildlife.

And.

I've heard people say, and I believe it, that it's what makes us human.

It's what makes us different than the animals.

Our appreciation of and enjoyment of beauty, whether it's beautiful music, whether it's a beautiful poem, whether it's a beautiful painting, it's important for me to do art.

That's that I feel proud of.

You know, I'll never just crank out junk just for the sale.

I want my life to have had meaning.

And in the in that context, that the work that I do has some importance and beauty to it, that people, you know, appreciate it, you know, hopefully for years and years and years to come, even after I'm gone.