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Message: <blockquote data-quote="solitaryVSong" data-source="post: 1727613" data-attributes="member: 77930">I ran across this quote a year ago from the Don Eckleberry Foundation, which offers two fellowships a year, located right here in Philadelphia. It seems pertinent to this thread:"Nature is an endless source of inspiration: There is simply no substitute for watching a subject behave in its native surroundings. Yet it is surprising how few artists today actually work in the field. Many prefer the safe, controllable environment of the studio. The heavy reliance on photos as primary source material by today's artists has, in many cases, resulted in not only a homogeneity of style and a slavishness to detail, but in a finished product devoid of the feeling or emotion that characterizes the best artwork.Couple this with the market-driven force of only painting subjects that will sell, i.e. wolves, bears, cats, raptors, all politely posed, and what you end up with is an uninspired body of work that conveys none of the excitement of encounter, no sense of individual personality or style, neither of the artist, nor of the animal."The full quote, and information about the fellowship, is available <a href="http://www.ansp.org/library/eckelberry/endowment.php" target="_blank">http://www.ansp.org/library/eckelberry/endowment.php</a>. One of last year's winners was Debbie Kaspari who many of you may know from her Drawing the Motmot blog.</blockquote>