El Cajon animal portraitist paints to the ‘call of the wild’ preservation

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Gloria Chadwick, a conservation artist of El Cajon, does not let the grass grow under her feet as she treks the globe to draw and paint wildlife.

In April, Chadwick travels to a plein air painting convention in Monterey. “Plein air is standing outdoors and painting what you see. It’s landscape in one setting,” Chadwick said. But painting is rarely just a standing around for Chadwick, who won the Artist for Conservation award in January.

Gloria Chadwick, a conservation artist of El Cajon, does not let the grass grow under her feet as she treks the globe to draw and paint wildlife.

In April, Chadwick travels to a plein air painting convention in Monterey. “Plein air is standing outdoors and painting what you see. It’s landscape in one setting,” Chadwick said. But painting is rarely just a standing around for Chadwick, who won the Artist for Conservation award in January.

Animal of Chadwick’s repertoire include a golden eagle that landed on a telephone pole across from her front yard, hummingbirds buzzing around feeders on her porch and a flock of Silkie Bantams chickens clucking happily in her back yard.

Wildlife that people overlook has a special place in her heart, she said.
“For some of us, our art may be the last thing people see of some of the animals, such as the black and white rhinos, which are being massacred for commercial purposes,” she said.
A former registered psychiatric nurse, Chadwick studies animal behavior as she works. But the actual capturing of the animal’s image is a challenge, she said.

“It was easy to make the change of career since it was just changing from observing human behavior to animal behavior,” she said. “Unlike people, animals will not pose for you.”
Chadwick’s personal favorite of her own paintings is the California condor, calling it “an example of how mankind can rally and save a magnificent specialized bird.”

Chadwick often works from a photo she takes of her animal subject, but there are other subtleties she needs to capture.

“You have to know animal anatomy enough to be able to get the lines and shapes of muscle,” she said.
Her adventures in painting wildlife began at six-years-old, when she won a San Diego contest for a horse drawing. She still has the little plastic trumpet she won.
Portraits of wild animals filling her studio are reminders of her visits from Africa to Yellowstone, from Death Valley to the High Sierras.

A barn owl that Chadwick painted belongs to Sky Hunters of Nancy Conney, and selected for the 2010 Birds in Art Show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum.

Chadwick donated one piece to an auction to benefit the Heritage of the Americas Museum in Rancho San Diego in celebration of its 20th anniversary on April 26. Each artist donates one piece to an auction that will benefit the museum.

Chadwick’s work is featured at the Olaf Wieghorst Western Heritage Center in El Cajon. The exhibit will run through June.