The Piedmont Environmental Council's 40th Anniversary Art Show opened at The National Sporting Library's Forrest E. Mars, Sr. Exhibit Hall on November 7th. A supportive crowd enjoyed the Library's reception and warm hospitality, while also enjoying the fine art of eleven Piedmont area artists and their work. Though the represented work seemed to have little to do with the PEC's overall mission, the quality of the paintings and broad range of subject matter measured up to a valuable artistic experience.

Some 30 works of art were chosen for the exhibit by the show's curator William Woodward, professor emeritus of fine arts at Georgetown University. All were for sale, with partial proceeds benefiting the PEC.

Also at the National Sporting Library's Museum is the must see exhibit - Bob Kuhn: Drawing on Instinct, which runs through February 28, 2013. This means you have time to see it more than once and I highly recommend that you do!

Bob Kuhn may be best known as a wildlife artist, but he was indeed one of those old school illustrators that became a fine art master and this show is quite masterful in its own right in sharing that story.

Don't just think incredible wildlife artist, think of talent to the likes of N.C. Wyeth or Norman Rockwell and you'll know what I mean.

Before photography, in the great days of illustration, the east was home to an amazing resource of artists needing close proximity to the publishers of New York City.

In time, many would follow, perhaps the greatest of them all N.C. Wyeth, west and in the process, some would become this country's finest realist painters. Bob Kuhn was certainly among them.

This exhibit not only exposes visitors to the best of wildlife art, but its unexpected jewel is exposing you to a master's process, his original sketches, magazine covers and don't miss the video which was made in 2006, the year before his passing. As if you looked up the word "texture" in the dictionary and found a Bob Kuhn painting, his very skilled ability in paint application is only second to his masterful and often energizing composition. His years of narrative painting as a top illustrator means your eyes will go exactly where he intended them to and you won't be disappointed.

Kuhn was a dedicated story teller of the world's wild-life of animals and his stories live on through this traveling retrospective organized by The National Museum of Wildlife in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Adam Harris, the exhibition's curator, should be highly commended, as should the the National Sporting Library for bringing us this amazing opportunity.

For more information, visit www.nsl.org