| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Jim Westergard is well known for his crisp, realistic drawings and his sharp and detailed wood engravings. His imagination thrives on humour, and his works often portray a tongue-in-cheek exploration of the weird and the odd. He is meticulous in his rendering of portraits not only of people, but of insects and animals as well. He is fascinated by various textural and surface qualities, and his love of drawing comes from being challenged by this manipulation of surface illusion.
Westergard often draws the beautiful and the unusual found in the natural world. He started a series in 2014 called Aliens of Planet Earth, featuring freakish but remarkable animals who live reclusively. In this series, the artist asks viewers to consider the “alien” life forms that dwell right here among us, on planet Earth. These stranger-than-life creatures are portrayed with a sensitivity similar to the more traditional subjects of portraiture, and are thus given their due glory.
Westergard’s artwork has been widely exhibited in dozens of international group exhibitions in Canada, United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom. He is an award winner and an elected member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (UK), Society of Wood Engravers (UK), the Wood Engravers Network (US), Fine Press Book Association, and the Boston Printmakers Society. Westergard graduated with a BFA from Utah State University in 1967, and then an MFA in 1969 from the same institution. From 1975 until his retirement in 1999, Westergard taught printmaking and drawing at Red Deer College. He continues to live and draw in Red Deer, Alberta.
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