Paul Kane is the most well known of all Canadian artist-explorers of the nineteenth century. He grew up in York (now Toronto) and started his career as a decorative furniture painter in nearby Cobourg. After working as a portraitist in Detroit and throughout the mid-west, Kane visited Europe and spent over a year traveling to art museums copying the old masters. Upon returning to Toronto, Kane set up a studio and took two trips to Western Canada; his first was a short excursion to Sault Ste. Marie in 1845 and his second a two-year expedition with the Hudson Bay Company to the Pacific in 1846 and 1847.

During his longer trip, Kane wrote in his journal, "Towards evening, as we were approaching the place where we were to cross the river, I saw some buffaloes idly grazing in a valley, and as I wished to give a general idea of the beauty of the scenery which lies all along the banks of the Saskatchawan from this point to Edmonton, I sat down to make a sketch, the rest of the party promising to wait for me at the crossing place. . . . The sleepy buffaloes grazing upon the undulating hills, here and there relieved by clumps of small tress, the unbroken stillness, and the approaching evening, rendered it altogether a scene of most enchanting repose."

Kane returned to Toronto with over 700 sketches of landscapes and Indians, including Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Cree, Clallam, Kwatiutl, and others. From those watercolor, pencil, and oil sketches, he completed over one hundred oil paintings, creating a type of Canadian Indian Gallery similar to George Catlin's of the United States. George Allan purchased the entire collection, and the Canadian Government also commissioned twelve paintings from Kane. The artist's last major project was having his travel journal published in 1859 including illustrations based on his sketches and paintings.

Although he lived and worked in Canada, Kane's work is in the style of classic nineteenth century European art, with thick glazes, muted color, smoky atmosphere, and compositions contrived in the studio. While his sketches are considered accurate and authentic renderings of native life and are useful for ethnologists, many of his paintings were created by combining images from his sketches and in some cases inventing landscapes and events.

(Quote: Kane, Paul. Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America. Reprinted in J. Russell Harper, ed. Paul Kane's Frontier. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1971, p. 80)

T.D. Kelsey was involved with the rodeo for twenty-one years and worked as a commercial pilot for thirteen years before resigning to pursue ranching and sculpture fulltime in 1979. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States as well as abroad, conducting wildlife studies and research.

Kelsey has also received commissions from many companies, including The Coca-Cola Company, Allen & Company Incorporated, the Saint Louis Zoo, and American Express. The National Museum of Wildlife Art commissioned A Change of Seasons, a monumental bison sculpture mounted outside in the museum's sculpture garden. His large moose bronze, Swamp Donkey, is on permanent display in the lobby.

Kelsey is a member of the National Sculpture Society and his work is recognized in many private collections and museums, including the Buffalo Bill Historical Society, the C.M. Russell Museum, and the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

Edward Kemeys was the American counterpart to the great French animalier Antoine Louis Barye (1796-1875) and heads the list of the great American animalier sculptors. Kemeys was the first American sculptor to devote his artistic career to portraying the animal life of the western plains and mountains. His love of the west began as a young boy when he spent summers on the Illinois prairie. A self-taught artist, Kemeys discovered his artistic calling by accident. After returning from duty in the Civil War, he moved to New York City where he worked with engineers on the creation of Central Park. Always an animal lover, he delighted in watching the wildlife in the Central Park Zoo. A chance encounter there with a sculptor modeling a wolf inspired his first efforts in wax, also of a wolf. Kemeys was almost instantly successful, enjoying a steady stream of commissions. One of his earliest works, a life-size group of two fighting wolves, was immediately purchased for Fairmont Park in Philadelphia where it remains today. With the proceeds of the sale, Kemeys financed a trip west to Wyoming in 1873 where he lived among hunters and Indians while studying wildlife in its natural habitat.

Kemeys also traveled to London and Paris where he drew critical acclaim for his uniquely American style and subject matter. Kemeys was repulsed by the study of caged animals after his experiences in the west, and condemned the artistic results of such observation as lifeless. For these reasons, he found the French sculptors too confining and pedantic in their approach and returned to the United States newly committed to his own artistic vision. Thereafter, he regularly traveled west whenever funding permitted.

Few artists become legends in their own time, but Rockwell Kent has been acclaimed as such and remains one of the great twentieth-century American artists. Persuaded against an art career by his family, he enrolled in the Columbia University School of Architecture in 1900. Still motivated by an interest in art, Kent took summer and night courses at Chase's New York School and the New York School of Art. In 1902, he entered Chase's on a scholarship, and by 1908, he had his first one man art show and had married Kathleen Whiting. Together they explored Monhegan Island, MA, Newfoundland, Vermont and the Adirondacks, NY.

A great artist-adventurer, Kent's travels took him throughout America and to countries around the world including Ireland, Cape Horn, Labrador, Greenland, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. Kent was particularly interested in Russia, and his outspoken socialist politics caused controversy throughout his life and cost him his passport in the 1950s. A court battle restored his right to travel, and he eventually gave his own collection of his paintings, drawings and graphic works to the Soviet Union. In 1967, he received the Lenin Peace Prize and donated part of the award to North Vietnam. In testimony to his greatness as an American artist, his obituary appeared on the front page of the New York Times in 1971.

Jonathan Kenworthy is widely acknowledged to be a leader in the field of contemporary animal sculpture. With a talent recognised at a young age, Kenworthy has always been an artist. He started modelling at four and by eleven had been on television and was attending the Royal College of Art. He later won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools, where he also won the Gold Medal for his sculpture and nine further scholarships.

During this period he studied anatomy at the Royal Veterinary College. His first sold-out exhibition in London meant that he could pursue his growing fascination with the chase in Africa. He flew to Kenya in 1965 and found the wide horizons and subjects to fuel his imagination for the next forty years.

He continued his studies of anatomy, working on wild animals at the University College in Nairobi. His initial interest in the life of the African Savannah broadened to take in the elegant nomads and, in later visits to Asia, he found the wild horsemen of the Hindu Kush and tiger in the jungles of Nepal.

His powerful modelling has a distinctive personal touch evoking a dramatic sense of movement in his bronzes. His breadth of vision can be seen in his range of subjects from Afghanistan, through Egypt to Africa. His perceptive eye brings a vivid reality to timeless moments. This articulate artist adds fresh depth of feeling to the vigourous sculptures and drawings he began in wild Africa. With integrity, great natural skill, and originality he has brought new life to bronze and has found a keen following amongst connoisseurs, collectors, and artists alike.

Through his childhood activities and studying outdoors, Steve Kestrel acquired an extensive knowledge of wildlife. His formal education began at Eastern New Mexico University where he studied natural sciences. He also studied sculpture at Colorado State University, but never completed his degree, claiming the professors were extraordinarily close-minded in their views of art. After leaving Colorado, Kestrel apprenticed for sculptor Boris Gilbertson in Santa Fe.

Since 1982, Kestrel prefers to carve directly in granite, slate, limestone, and sandstone, which are extremely sensitive and difficult materials that require great strength and concentration. He carves the stone without a previously constructed model, explaining that it is an attempt to preserve "the soul of the stone." The sculptures often retain the natural shape of the raw material while clearly evoking the animal subject matter. In addition to working in stone, Kestrel has experimented with bronze casting, which has allowed the creation of more delicate forms that were not possible in stone.

Kestrel is a member of the National Sculpture Society as well as the Society of Animal Artists. His works are recognized in many private and corporate collections and in a number of museums, including the Wichita Art Museum in Kansas, the Gilcrease Museum, and the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

Ron Kinsgwood is a new artist to the collection, but a painter who has been making fine art for decades. As a youth, Kingswood was enamored with the work of Don Eckleberry, famed illustrator for Audubon magazine. In art school and after, Kingswood was heavily influenced by fellow Canadian, Robert Bateman. During this era, Kingswood was painting in a tight, highly realistic fashion, and achieving a great deal of commercial success. However, commercial success did not leave him spiritually fulfilled. By the mid-eighties, Kingswood felt a change was necessary; he began to pare down the detail in his work and to paint in a more expressive and impressionistic fashion. As the detail in his paintings grew looser, the canvases grew larger.

Charles R. Knight was best known for his work as a natural history painter, bringing prehistoric animals to life in the American Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Museum, the Smithsonian, the Field Museum in Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum. Knight excelled at depicting living animals as well as extinct creatures. He loved big cats, lions especially, and was also fond of sculpting elephants. He was a member of a loosely associated group of artists who all worked under Carl Akeley at New York's American Museum of Natural History. The Museum is dedicated to collecting the work of this group, as it represents an important chapter in the history of American wildlife art. Other artists in this group are James Lippitt Clark, Louis Paul Jonas, William R. Leigh and even the greatly esteemed painter Carl Rungius.

Francois Koch was born May 3, 1944, in Johannesburg, South Africa. He trained at the Johannesburg School of Art and after completing his art degree was employed as a production and layout artist at a large publishing company. He freelanced as an illustrator for several magazines and other publications and then joined a publishing house, managing the production of books. Thereafter, he had a three-year stint with the Lindsay Smithers advertising agency.

He started his fine art painting career in 1969 and had his first one-man show in 1971, after which he received his first commission from Volkskas Bank. During the 70s, Koch had several single artist shows at the Lister Art Galleries. In 1987 his work was featured at the Schweickerdt Gallery in Pretoria, and in 1988, the Sanderling Gallery in Johannesburg hosted an exhibition of his wildlife and landscape paintings. He also participated in a number of group exhibitions at the Everard Read Gallery and in the Sotheby's Wildlife Auction. His work is sold internationally, and numerous paintings have been reproduced on calendars.

In 1996, he visited the United States and Canada, traveling from Seattle to Florida painting the American landscape. He revisted the United States in 1998 and met Stuart Johnson, owner of Settlers West Gallery in Tucson, who has been representing Koch since then. Presently, the artist resides in the United States part of the year. In March 2000, Koch had a single artist exhibition at Settlers West Gallery in Tucson, in which every painting exhibited was sold.

Koch is represented by Settlers West Galleries, Inc., Tucson, AZ, and Texas Art Gallery, Dallas, TX.

Specializing in waterfowl paintings, Leslie Kouba is recognized as one of the artists responsible for the revival of wildlife art in the 1970s. While growing up on a farm in Hutchinson, Minnesota, Kouba learned hunting, trapping, and fishing from his father and began recording many images of his rural life on scraps of paper. His parents enrolled him in a correspondence art course when he was fourteen years old, which provided the budding artist the flexibility and opportunity to learn artistic techniques in addition to performing his farm chores. He left home at age sixteen and traveled to thirty-eight states, supporting himself by doing commercial painting, such as lettering signs and designing Coca-Cola bulletins.

In 1937, Kouba returned home to Minnesota. He moved to Minneapolis at the outbreak of World War II to work for D.W. Onan & Sons Company, a manufacturer of portable electric generators, and was a successful contributor to the advertising department. After the war, Kouba started his own advertising company and designed the Art-O-Graph, a type of upright projector, which helped cut down time spent on the mechanical aspect of commercial art.

Although he supported himself with his commercial art, Kouba spent his nights and weekends continuing to work on his wildlife art. His fine art began to gain recognition when he was asked to contribute to Brown and Bigelow's calendars and was awarded covers for Sports Afield magazine. By 1952, his commercial art studio had developed into American Wildlife Galleries where he sold his own original artwork and represented many other wildlife artists as well. Kouba's design of Canadian geese was chosen as the twenty-fifth Federal Duck Stamp in 1957, and he won the prestigious award again in 1967 with an image of Squaw ducks. The artist and businessman continued to paint wildlife, supervise his gallery, and support Ducks Unlimited conservation efforts until his death in 1998.

Although he also painted big game animals and fish, Kouba is most known for his images of pheasants and waterfowl. His ornithological imagery is unique because he often incorporated a human element into the landscape, such as farm equipment, fences, barns, and windmills. He also liked to include some hidden treasures for viewers who look closely at his work, such as the small cottontail that can be found in all three images of his pheasant shelter series. Throughout his life, Kouba won numerous stamp competitions, illustrated several books and magazines, and generously donated time and money to charities.

"I believe to be successful you must work at something you enjoy. For me, the thing I liked to do best was painting wildlife. I wasn't content to look out the window for my ideas. I wanted to experience and learn all about the outdoors. I love it so much, I'd be painting, even if I didn't make any money at it."

(Source: Johnson, Kay J. "From Coca-Cola to Canvasbacks: Les J. Kouba," Wildlife Art News (March/April 1988): 46-59.)

Robert Kuhn was born and grew up in Buffalo, New York. As a boy, he began to observe and draw animals at the nearby Buffalo Zoo. In 1937, Kuhn attended the Pratt Institute in New York City where he studied design, anatomy, and life-drawing. For the next 30 years, he was one of the most popular wildlife illustrators in America. His work appeared in many publications. In 1970, Kuhn turned exclusively to easel painting.

Kuhn often painted simple backgrounds with horizontal bands of color and light. He worked primarily in acrylic and is well known for his ability to paint the particular movements and personalities of wild animals. Kuhn was a member of the Society of Animal Artists in New York and his works are featured in the permanent collections of many museums including the National Museum of Wildlife Art. At the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, his painting Lair of the Cat, won the prestigious 1991 Prix de West awarded by the Academy of Western Art.

German born artist Kuhnert was one of the first European artists to travel to East Africa to sketch the wildlife and terrain of the region. At the end of the nineteenth-century, Kuhnert trained at the Berlin Academy of Arts. At that time, Berlin was a hotbed of sporting art. Most of Kuhnert's teachers and fellow students studied animals in captivity. However, Kuhnert worked with the prominent animal painter Richard Friese who emphasized studying animals in their native habitats.

Kuhnert first traveled to Africa in 1891. He went on safaris in the German and English colonial territories in South and East Africa in 1905 and 1911-12. In 1906, he toured India and Ceylon. On these expeditions, he sketched and made field notes as a basis for his art, which he later executed in his studio in Berlin.

Rudolf Friederich Kurz studied art in Switzerland and Paris before coming to America in 1846 with the dream of drawing and painting the Indians. Traveling along the Mississippi and Upper Missouri Rivers, he lived and worked at fur trading outposts such as Fort Berthold and Fort Union. He came with the goal of drawing Indians but also sketched wild animals of the region, domesticated animals of the forts, and life in the trader camps. When his art supplies ran out in 1852, he returned home to Switzerland where he became a master of design at the cantonal, or regional, school in Berne.

As he observed animals in nature, Kurz made hundreds of small pencil and pen-and-ink drawings, which he considered scientific studies. He recorded in his journal, "Saw, today, a large herd of elks grazing on the hills. With the aid of my telescope I studied for a long while their different postures and movements." He planned on turning the sketches into composed paintings after returning to the studio. However, he never got the chance to fulfill that goal due to illness, and he produced few paintings after returning home to Berne.

(Quote: Kurz, Rudolf Friederich. Journal of Rudolf Friederich Kurz: An Account of His Experiences Among Fur Traders and American Indians on the Mississippi and the Upper Missouri Rivers During the Years 1846 to 1852. Translated by Myrtis Jarrell. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1970, p. 322)