Written By Mary Spiro
The place is Kenya, East Africa, early August. Bart Walter, a wiry man in his late 40s wearing wire rimmed glasses and an equally wiry beard, intently studies the form of a lioness crouched in the grass. She is close, just a few yards away, poised on the vast expanse of the Masaii Mara before her. She is a beautiful, sleek, self assured queen of her domain, and Walter, a minor intrusion into her world, is of no immediate concern.
Walter does not fear the lioness. He is too focused on capturing the shape of her head, the angle of her haunches, the flick of her tail. Deftly he glides a stick of charcoal across a sheet of rough paper. At any moment she is likely to change her position so he must work quickly. Tomorrow or the next day, he will come back to this place, even though he knows the big cat will have moved on, to help him conjure up in his mind’s eye the lioness’ posture and expression; its “gesture.” This time, he will make other kinds of sketches by smashing wads of clay or wax onto wire armatures, recreating the images burned into his memory. Then, weeks after that in his studio, a simple, two-story building about 30 yards from his home, he will transform these miniature studies, or maquettes, into life-size sculptures to be cast in bronze.
Bart Walter’s portfolio spans more than 20 years of working in wood, clay, wax, bronze and charcoal. The kind of representational art he has developed over time does not render realistic forms. They are more like impressions, but his lions, cheetahs, chimpanzees, mountain gorillas, giraffes, elephants and other wildlife seem to possess the urgency and energy of their living counterparts.
As a result, his style, imagination, sense of wonder and astuteness for capturing animal behavior has earned the quiet, unassuming man from Westminster a respected place in the hearts of wildlife art collectors and conservationists worldwide. His works are displayed in public places, such as The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, and in the homes of private collectors, such as world-renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall.
Casual observers might be deceived by Walter’s apparently rough approach to sculpture. But Walter is not interested in polish. He is focused on distilling his subjects down to their bare essentials. “I want to create something,” he said, “that has the ability to tell a story without all the detail.”
The safari guides and African hosts were skeptical when Walter arrived in 1986 to tour into the wilderness and live among native peoples, animals and plants. Since then, Walter, his wife Lynn and their two daughters,
Katherine, 17, and Rebecca, 15, have been on safari numerous times. And soon everyone who saw Bart’s finished pieces agreed that this Maryland native really knows his animals. He is formally educated in animal behavior, having earned a bachelor’s in biology at Hiram College.
But Walter’s keen field observations set him apart as a true field biologist and artist with a level of knowledge not available in books.
Walter has listened to lions in the night and smelled the blood of their kills. He has sat for hours and days, sometimes alone and sometimes with his family in tow, as great, gray elephants thundered just a few yards away. He has also enjoyed learning about his subjects anew through the eyes of his children as they have grown up on trips into the bush. Only through
such interaction could Walter create creatures that appear as if they could strike, flee, strut or preen, right off of their bases and into your imagination.
“The magic of Walter’s work is that people instantly relate to it,” said Laura Reagan, an art consultant from Denver, Colorado. Walter has been working with Reagan in Westminster’s sister city in Colorado on an installation called “Wapati Circle.” The piece, depicting two female elk guarding their fawns with a larger-than-life, 9-foot bull elk leading the way, will become the centerpiece of a highly visible and prominent town circle. For the sculpture, Walter spent days on horseback, riding through Yellowstone Park observing every stance and gesture of these massive creatures.
“Our hope is that families will respond to having art available to them every day and react to it aesthetically, visually and emotionally,” said Reagan. Because education and awareness is also a large part of Walter’s mission as an artist, he will offer presentations on his work exclusively to the high school students in both Westminster towns.
Walter’s love and talent for art began at home. He grew up in Baltimore where his parents appreciated the paintings of French Impressionists. His mother was an avid bird lover and shared the interest with her son. At a young age, Walter’s father gave him a sharp carving knife and he soon began sculpting ultrarealistic decoys of the waterfowl he would observe during summer family trips to the Eastern Shore. During high school at Friends School, he focused his elective efforts on art.
“Art was never something abstract or unattainable,” Walters said. “No one in my family painted or drew, let alone sculpted, but I was always encouraged to do whatever I wanted to do and to do my best.”
His early wooden sculptures and decoys delighted family and friends and became a source of steady part-time income well into his years at Hiram College, in Ohio, where he took some art courses, but majored in biology. But Walter’s artistic sensibilities yearned to reach another level. One day, he was showing some of his wooden decoys to his friend (and future wife) Lynn, who was also studying biology. “The decoys were so realistic, they looked as though they would be soft to touch,” Lynn Walter recalled.
He asked Lynn if she thought the decoy could be better. Knowledgeable about animal behavior herself, Lynn replied, “Well, it might be more interesting if the head was turned back a little this way.” Walter agreed and in an instant, wrenched the head back just the way she had suggested.
“This was sort of a Ôlight bulb’ moment,” Walter said. Some time later, he remembers, “I concluded that I would never attain the level of spontaneity I desired for his art if I continued to work in wood. I was going to have to use clay. And when you work in clay, it means you must work in bronze so that the form becomes permanent.”
During Lynn’s graduate studies at the College of William and Mary, the couple had the good fortune to meet Dr. Jane Goodall, who had come to present a guest lecture. Goodall was so impressed by Walter’s work that she commissioned him to create a chimpanzee. It took him nearly two years to research and complete, but the work became one of his earliest bronze sculptures. The Jane Goodall Institute now offers a similar limited edition
bronze chimp created to commemorate the 40th anniversary of her research on chimpanzees.
The bronze casting method that Walter uses is referred to as the “lost wax” method. Unlike his decoy carving, which involves just the artist, some wood and a carving tool, creating bronze sculpture requires a complex series of plaster and rubber molds, along with hands of many skilled artisans and a foundry where bronze can be melted to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. A good foundry-principally the New Arts Foundry in Baltimore, which casts many of Walter’s works– will produce a final piece that is true to every detail, every fingerprint and every fold in the original clay or wax model. The final product gets a patina of color and several coats of wax to protect the finished piece.
Several of Walter’s sculptures are on permanent display at The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. Frequent visitors have surely enjoyed Walter’s three playful river otters entitled “Otter Rocks,” the reclining “Polar Bear” and the recently added “Mountain Silverback.” Two more compositions- a pair of stalking lioness and a trio of running ostrich– are soon to be added to the park’s menagerie.
“Walter’s work helps our patrons become more cognizant of animals,” said Kerry Graves, Vice President of Marketing at The Maryland Zoo. Walter’s works are positioned throughout the zoo so visitors can view them from every angle and even touch them. “His works allow people to interact with animals in a way that they could not do otherwise.”
Through his art, Walter is just as much naturalist as Goodall. He is just as much conservationist as those who lead The Maryland Zoo. And he is just as much an advocate of fine art for the people as the community leaders in the town of Westminster, Colorado. He is all these things and one more: an ambassador who travels into the remote realms of the natural world to capture a magic spark from the life force for the rest of us to enjoy.
Places where you can see Bart Walter’s art:
Bart Walter’s Studio
(by appointment, contact Hilary Hatfield
717-630-2437 or www.bartwalter.com)
Ain’t That a Frame Gallery, Westminster
The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore
Carla Massoni Gallery, Chestertown
(October 7-October 29, 2005)
The Academy Art Museum
Easton (November 10-13, 2005)
Brookgreen Gardens
Pawleys Island, SC
Canton Museum of Art
Canton, OH
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum
Wausau, WI
National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson Hole, WY
