Mark your calendars:

May 21 – 23, 2010

Friday           12 pm – 8 pm
Saturday      10 am – 8 pm
Sunday         10 am – 6 pm

Stoney Creek Inn & Conference Center
5291 Stoney Creek Court
Johnston, IA (Just NE of 86th St exit, I-35/80)
See Stoney Creek Inn on Google Maps

Highlights:

• Release of Dream Bucks III – The Midwest Monster
• Choose Father’s Day Gifts at special prices, including up to $90 off a set of framed Dream Bucks Encore canvases
• RSVP here to receive $20 off your Open House purchase!
• Select your custom framing for Dream Bucks III
• Framed prints and canvases of Dream Bucks III ready to take home with you
• Recent paintings and originals on display
• Watch Larry work on a new painting at the Open House
• That art belongs on the wall, not under the bed – bring in your Dream Bucks I and II that you’ve been waiting to frame.
• Daily drawings for artwork prizes

If you RSVP to the Open House before attending, you will receive a $20 gift certificate towards your purchase of $50 or more at the Open House! Click here to RSVP online.

Dream Bucks III - The Midwest Monster by Larry Zach

Dream Bucks III – The Midwest Monster is finished! Larry has completed the painting after spending over a year in designing, creating, and painting. It truly is a beautiful piece of art. His heart and soul have poured into making this the best it can be.

Dream Bucks III – The Midwest Monster is the third image in the Dream Bucks series, which features some of the world’s most impressive whitetails. It follows Dream Bucks I – The Hole in the Horn Buck and Dream Bucks II – The Missing Trophy. Featured in Dream Bucks III is the huge, non-typical buck taken by Kyle Simmons on October 16, 2008 in eastern Iowa. This buck was Kyle’s first buck with a bow and was featured on the January 2009 cover of North American Whitetail magazine. Scoring 275 5/8, it is our new Iowa state record archery non-typical and the third largest non-typical whitetail in the world ever taken by bow and arrow.
New for the Dream Bucks III release, we are offering the choice of either a giclée paper or giclée canvas print in the Classic Standard Numbered (SN) and Artist Proof (AP) editions. Each print number will exist in one form or the other, but not both.

Edition                             Quantity      Image Size       Unframed Price
Master SN Giclée Canvas              100                30 x 20                    $295
Master AP Giclée Canvas              25                   30 x 20                    $365
Classic SN Canvas -or- Paper      850                 22 x 14.75              $145
Classic AP Canvas -or- Paper      125                 22 x 14.75              $175

Dream Bucks III is also available as a framed decorator or encore open edition canvas.

Open Edition                Framed Size        Framed Price
Encore Giclée Canvas            23 x 17                    $129
Decorator Giclée Canvas      17 x 14                     $89

If I’m ordering a Classic SN or AP, should I choose the paper print or canvas?
There are good reasons for either choice. Some collectors may want to order the third image in the series as a paper print to match the two previous Dream Bucks paintings already purchased. Others will choose to purchase their number as a canvas because it looks like an original painting.

Why is Zach Wildlife Art focusing more on canvas prints?
Three years ago we acquired a top-of-the-line giclée ink printer, which enables us to provide the best artwork possible. Everything from designing and creating the original painting to the color management and printing are done in-house by Larry. Every step of the process is perfected according to Larry’s highest standards. This has allowed us to produce images that are closer to the original than ever before. Giclée printing on canvas provides the richest and most vibrant color matching. Our giclée canvases are treated with an ultraviolet, waterproof finish that protects the image and extends the life of the canvas to 200 years.

Some advantages to the canvas are:

• Looks like the original painting. Many mistake it for the original.
• No glass used in framing, which eliminates potential issues with glare disrupting viewing.
• Much more affordable than an original and replaceable if damaged.
• Master Canvases can be custom-sized to fit your wall space.

Giclée canvases are an excellent value for even the most discriminating consumer.

How can Zach Wildlife Art produce a better product at such an attractive price?
Several things make this possible. Because we now do our own printing and Larry has full control over the end result, we are able to save you money that would normally go to a publisher or outsource printer. In addition, with our gallery move, we have trimmed our overhead significantly, and we are passing on these savings to our collectors. Just as the economy has influenced Americans to budget more wisely, Zach Wildlife Art is finding ways to cut expenses and make our products more affordable for our collectors.

The Classic Canvas edition is priced at $145 (or $175 for the AP), the same price as past paper prints. We have also been able to reduce the price of the Master Canvas SN edition from $425 to only $295 and the Master Canvas AP edition from $495 to only $365. All are tremendous values.

To place your order, you may choose one of the following:

• Call Zach Wildlife Art at (515) 964-7872
• Email us at info at zachwildlifeart dot com
• Attend our Open House on May 21-23

During the five days at the store, we met many of the employees, all whom displayed great hospitality, and we visited with thousands of awestruck customers coming for their first visit to see the impressive displays and decor. We also had the added privilege of meeting John Morris, the founder and CEO of Bass Pro Shops, during the special Conservation Evening event.

We look forward to working further with Bass Pro Shops in the future, so keep your eyes open for more demonstrations and partnerships.

Here are the studies:

Mountain Man Study

Study of April Zach and Patches the cat

Oak tree study

Study of Molly the dog

Larry and charging elephant study

Even prior to finishing Dream Bucks II – The Missing Trophy, I was already searching for a subject for its sequel, Dream Bucks III. Living in Iowa and knowing many serious deer hunters, coming up with a list of potential candidates was not difficult. However, with the multitude of great bucks this state produces, deciding which particular trophy to paint can be a challenge.

Things got a little easier by late October 2008. Photos of a tremendous buck started appearing on the internet. At least a dozen friends forwarded the photos to me to ensure I knew about the buck taken by a bowhunter in eastern Iowa.

After a couple phone calls, I found myself talking to Kyle Simmons, a pleasant young man from Jackson County, Iowa. You can read the story of Kyle’s hunt in an article from North American Whitetail here.

After discussing the concept for the Dream Bucks series, Kyle was interested in the possibility of having his buck featured in the upcoming painting. We agreed on a time and place where I could see the buck in person and take photographs.

Once I arrived and Kyle pulled out the rack, it didn’t take long to realize I was looking at a remarkable set of antlers. The rack was not only going to score well, but more importantly, it was very impressive visually. It was everything an artist wanted!

Unfortunately, it had taken me longer than I anticipated to get to Kyle’s place, so I had to work fast to get photos before the sun hid behind a cloud bank moving in from the west.

The initial visit and photo-shoot was followed by numerous phone conversations, but it was challenging to arrange for a follow-up photo session while the rack was being cast for reproductions and being mounted by Joe Meder of Solon.

During this period, I considered, literally, dozens of compositions. I found a number of combinations I liked initially, but that would not work for this painting. I needed a strong composition, but the background had certain requirements beyond those of an artistic nature.

Over the years, I’ve partnered with many conservation groups. Since I now do my own color work and printing in-house, we’ve developed some creative ways to help conservation groups maximize their fundraising efforts.

Starting with Dream Bucks II, I have been customizing the painting and creating a unique image and edition for each of several conservation groups. For example, the prints in the Iowa Pheasants Forever edition have several added rooster pheasants, unique to this edition. The Iowa Ducks Unlimited edition has a number of wood ducks included, inconspicuously. Some editions include wild turkey. By offering a unique design, conservation group chapters have been able to raise increased funds for great causes.

That brings me to the complications introduced for me, as the artist designing each painting. It needs to be a composition that not only works well for the main focal point, the buck, but also one that provides a natural setting for turkey, pheasants, and waterfowl to share the scene, as well.

After many trials and much evaluation, I finally settled on one painting design. Also, I was able to see both Kyle and the trophy again at the Iowa Deer Classic recently, and I used this opportunity to take more photos of the rack in better lighting conditions.

[I will add some photos here as soon as they’re copied off my camera.]

I am currently in the process of painting the original, and I hope to have it done soon. After all, spring is coming soon, which means habitat management and prepping for this year’s food plots!

In my next post, I’ll show you the design for Dream Bucks III and explain how the particular composition was developed.

Kyle will be splitting time between our Zach Wildlife Art booth, where a trophy replica will be displayed, and the Hunter’s Specialties booth, where the original rack will be shown.

Make sure you stop by our booth so I can tell you about the upcoming Dream Bucks III painting featuring the Kyle Simmons buck!

Customized version of the North American Whitetail magazine cover

(And, just for fun, see if you can tell the difference between the real rack and the replica.)

Good news! The third and final painting in the Dream Bucks series is on the easel and in progress.

I am hearing from many of you how excited you are to see this latest deer painting, so I will be working to post regular updates on the progress of the piece as it evolves. I will also share “behind the scenes” details on the inspiration for the painting and on the famous buck that is now the subject of aspiring hunters’ dreams.

The Kyle Simmons Buck

The featured buck for Dream Bucks III is a deer taken with a bow by Kyle Simmons in Jackson County, Iowa on Oct. 16, 2008.

This world-class buck is truly special and, I believe, a perfect subject for my Dream Bucks painting series.

Kyle Simmons’s hunting season was certainly a dream come true, as this was his first buck taken with a bow!

Dream Bucks II – The Missing Trophy featured the monster buck taken by Brian Andrews in 2003. At 253 1/8 inches, that deer was the state record non-typical archery buck for five years – until Kyle Simmons’s buck , scoring 270 6/8 (green), entered the scene and knocked the previous title winner off the podium.

You may have already read the story published in North American Whitetail magazine about Kyle Simmons’s trophy and the hunt that lead to success. If you haven’t, don’t worry, because I’ve embedded the story below for your reading pleasure!

I recommend reading the article in full-screen mode. Just click “Fullscreen” above the top of the article.

[scribd id=12997282 key=key-nbgwx9xamlja4m8s6zy mode=list]

Bluebirds and Purple Coneflower by Larry Zach (c) 2008

I’ve been wanting to do a bluebird piece for a long time, but I was only recently able to finally gather all the reference material I needed to create a strong painting design.I was raised on a farm in eastern Iowa between the town of Swisher and the eastern-most colony of the Amana Colonies appropriately called, East Amana. The farm included some rich Iowa River bottom ground and nearby hills and valleys with a mosaic of timber and pasture. The timber included a number of ancient trees including old white oaks dating back to pre-settlement days. A creek ran through the farm. There were lots of places to explorer and learn about mother nature and I took full advantage of it. I’ve never out grown that passion, the excitement of exploring new country and learning about the natural world.

Though I was raised on a farm I never really wanted to be a farmer. It always seemed more interesting to me to study the natural world. At a young age I realized I wanted to live and work on a farm, not to make a living but to work with the habitat and wildlife. Of course that usually doesn’t pay very well so the dream stayed a dream for many years.

So owning a piece of land in Iowa and managing it for habitat and wildlife has been a dream of mine for most of my life. While teaching and raising a family funds accumulated slowly so I was almost 50 by the time I joined friends to purchase some ground in northern Missouri. I bought my current farm, a rather run down piece of ground in 1997. It showed a lot of use. The  CRP was all brome and the timber long neglected and choked with multiflora rose. But it was what I was looking for. Not much of a farm for traditional farming, but it was a great candidate for a wildlife farm.

The following 11 years have been a labor of love. Lots of tree planting, timber stand improvement, putting in food plots, ponds and a wetland, re-establishing native grass and prairie. The property is managed for a lot of diversity of habitat with the goal of appealing to a wide range of wildlife. Along with nest boxes for Canada geese, kestrels, wood ducks, wrens, and tree swallows, we have number of bluebird houses and the bluebirds take full advantage of them.

I was sitting in a blind near one of these bluebird houses one morning as the rising sun cut through the morning fog. I’d carefully placed the blind to get the angle of light I wanted and for once everything went right. A pair of bluebirds came by house hunting. The male looked it over from a number of different angles. Then the female did her inspection. Meanwhile, a very excited wildlife artist (that’s me) was enjoying the whole show and capturing it through a 200 mm lens for up-close results. That is how I captured the bluebird reference I subsequently used to paint Bluebirds and Purple Coneflower.

Along with building bird habitats, we’ve been working on re-establishing several prairie plots on the farm by seeding dozens of species of native grasses,  forbs, and sedges. Much of the seed used I had collected myself during my wanderings. I also included a bag of seed I bought from Carl Kurtz, who is an exceptional photographer and sells native seed raised on his farm. (We first met in the 1960s while studying Fish and Wildlife Biology at Iowa State University.) The seed bag was composed of up to 80 different plants, so each year I walk the prairies and see if I can spot any new members of the community emerging.

There are the plants that show up only after a number of years. Then there are the old reliables that show up every year. One that is very showy in the summer is  purple coneflower. I like to head out at dawn each morning with my camera and take photos while the light is prime. It was on several of these forays that I collected the purple coneflower reference.

Though I’ve taken out many of the interior fences on the property, I often leave old fence posts in place when they are not in the way. In southeastern Iowa, most of these were cut from hedge apple ( Osage-orange) decades ago. Hedge posts are extremely rot resistant and therefore last a very long time. The older they get, the more character they develop. This particular post sits along a lane which cuts through a little patch of prairie. Though I didn’t see the pair of bluebirds in that particular spot, it seems like a natural setting for them. It also provided the reference post for this painting.

Once I had the components I needed, I created the conceptual design, and then finally the original painting. I had plenty of reference material, so I experimented with various elements and compositions until I found the arrangement I liked best. It was fun to work the various colors up and down to find the right balance. Developing the atmosphere of the scene enhanced the sense of depth. These paintings, even though they may seem simple in composition at first glance, seem to always take longer than I anticipate to finish. It’s worth the work, though, because it’s final result that counts. I hope you like the result of my work this time: Bluebirds and Purple Coneflower.

Information on the Eastern purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ECPU

Information on the Eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis)
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Eastern_Bluebird.html

Photos of the Eastern bluebird brooding process, from egg-laying to fledging (leaving the nest), from a NestCam
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/nestinginfo/nestboxcam/2007_cams/e_bluebird_heath2/index1_html