10 years of traveling with the "show"; Anthony J Padgett at all seven All-Canada Show venues 'DU Artist of Year' at All-Canada Show The "2008 Ducks Unlimited International Artist of the Year," Anthony J. Padgett, who has made a career out of his love for the outdoors, will be at the 2012 All-Canada Show coming to seven great cities across the Midwest. Padgett will bring a "gallery" to the show that will include original paintings, prints and some of his other work. "This is my tenth All-Canada Show circuit, and with each passing year my display area has gotten larger and the show guests have become more interested," Padgett said, "Although the All-Canada circuit is a long haul and I get pretty tired by the end, it is great to meet so many people. They are often impressed by how much I have on display and they always ask how I haul all that stuff," he said. Padgett's original artwork will be part of the the grand prize for the 2012 All-Canada Show circuit. Padgett didn't get serious about painting until he entered college at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, not far from his home in Bellville, IL, just east of St. Louis. After graduating in 1991 from SIU in computer graphics, Padgett worked for six months at a St. Louis advertising agency--a job he absolutely hated. He happened to attend a Ducks Unlimited competitive art show in St. Louis and thought "man, I can do this" and quit his day job the following Monday. Although he never took a course in free hand art, his first commercial piece of art was a wood duck and he sold it to a local car dealership for $400. "It paid the rent, but it took me a month to paint it, so I wasn't getting rich. But, I was doing what I liked." Padgett said he immediately made a board of goals that he still keeps on his desk and one of them was to become the DU artist of the year. "It took a long time, a lot of hard work and a lot longer than I thought it would, but when I heard the news, it was almost unbelievable." The winning DU painting was titled "Diligence" and was a yellow Labrador sitting in some reeds, looking away from the painter at a flock of seven ducks with the morning sun's rays coming through the opposite shoreline onto the water. The sun's realistic rays have become a signature of Padgett's and one that will continue. "It gives you a whole different perspective of the painting, I just recreated the sunset like you would really see it" he said. Like other greats such as Terry Redlin, when you see a Padgett piece of artwork, you won't have to look at the signature to know "it is a Padgett." The All-Canada Show has commissioned Padgett to do two major paintings, "Locked at Lac Seul" and "View from Churchill" where in both cases he traveled to Canada to become completely acquainted with the animals and their surroundings. "Locked at Lac Seul" depicts two trophy moose "locked to the death" in a three part painting: the first shows the two bulls coming at each other; the second, the moose are in a locked position, and the third, just the antlers lying next to a bog. The painting is the portrayal of an actual event that has also been preserved in the form of a life-size full mount of the two moose that is also displayed at the All-Canada Show titled "Locked at Lac Seul Presented by Cabela's." "View from Churchill" is also a three part piece with the first, a male polar bear; the second, a female and cub, and the third, the continuation of the scene out to sea. If you are interested in visiting the Anthony J Padgett gallery in the Indianapolis area, it is located at: 14405 Clay Terrace Blvd. Online visit: www.ajpgallery.com
Recent accolades bestowed upon Anthony include:
|
