About Mel Dobson

MEL DOBSON, Wildlife Artist

"For over two and a half decades I have recorded nature’s wild inhabitants and

I have discovered the best part of life for me is nature; its wild places, its wild animals and birds.

It is no longer possible to find the balance that once existed between nature and wildlife.

We must remember that as the wilderness is diminished, humanity is also diminished. "

A member of THE SOCIETY OF ANIMAL ARTISTS, Mel primarily paints wildlife subjects in their natural environment. Mel works in Scratchboard, Watercolor, Oil, Acrylic and Gouache. Some of his work has been reproduced as limited edition prints. Raised on a ranch in Utah, he worked for the Washington State Department of Game for eighteen years prior to beginning a full time art career in the early 1970's. In 1977 he moved to Jackson hole, Wyoming. Mel has traveled throughout the western United States, Alaska, Canada, Africa, and Europe, studying and researching wildlife. In 1984 he started Wolfwalker Galleries in Sedona, Arizona and currently resides, during the winter months, in Oak Creek Canyon. Mel can be found on Wild Horse Island, in Flathead Lake, Montana during other seasons of the year.

The gathering of research material for his work has taken Mel to various parts of the world:

2000 Mel spent three months in Alaska and British Columbia, studied among others, grizzly, (brown) and black bears.
1999 Two months in British Columbia, and southern Alaska, bears and moose.
1998 Traveled to the Pantanal region of Brazil, on a private ranch to study birds and wildlife including the jaguar, giant otters and the world's largest rodents, the capybara.
1996-97 Traveled to Western Canadian National Parks, Glacier, Mt Robson, Revelstoke, Jasper and Banff studying wildlife including elk, deer, moose and bears.
1993-4 East Africa, Spent two summers. Part of that time was spent in Tanzania, traveling the Serengetti Plains, Ngorongoro Crater, and into several other relatively unknown parks. In Kenya, spent the summer traveling through various parks with the assistance of the Kenya Wildlife Service, including; East and West Tsavo, , Meru, Abridare Mountains, the Siwah Swamps, Mount Elgon, Maralal and Mt Kenya.

Honors, Awards, Shows and Publications

Included with the Top 100 Artists in both the 1988 and the 1987 "Arts for the Parks", competition sponsored by the National Park Academy of Arts, Inc. in cooperation with the National Park Foundation.

Society Of Animal Artists Show, Cummings Nature Center, div of Rochester Museum And Science Center In Naples, New York.

ONE MAN SHOW, Tonsberg, Norway.

BEST OF SHOW - National Western Art Show And Auction.

BEST OF SHOW - Oregon Trail Western Art Show And Auction.

PURCHASE AWARD - National Western Art Show And Auction.

1ST PLACE - Wyoming Wildlife Federation 1984 (big game print stamp).

"CONTEMPORARY WESTERN ARTISTS", By Peggy & Harold Samules.

Limited Edition Prints For Auction Catalogs, Museum Of Native American Cultures, Show & Auction, And National Western Art Show And Auction, Ellensburg, Washington.

Artist advisor for the National Western Art Show And Auction.

Featured in: Art West Magazine, Spring 1978; in Western Art Digest, summer, 1985, "Artists of Jackson Hole", Plateau magazine of the Museum of Northern Arizona, 1990; Sedona, Verde Valley Visitor's Guide, 1996.

Galleries

Kindred Spirits Gallery, Glacier International Airport, Kalispell, Montana, John Clarke Western Art Gallery and Museum, East Glacier, Montana, Natural Talent Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya. Mel Dobson Wildlife Art Studio, Polson, Montana.

2000 Mel spent three months in Alaska and British Columbia, studied among others, grizzly, (brown) and black bears.

1999 Two months in British Columbia, and southern Alaska, bears and moose.

1998 Traveled to the Pantanal region of Brazil, on a private ranch to study birds and wildlife including the jaguar, giant otters and the world's largest rodents, the capybara.

1996-97 Traveled to Western Canadian National Parks, Glacier, Mt Robson, Revelstoke, Jasper and Banff studying wildlife including elk, deer, moose and bears.