Internationally renowned Buckhorn-based wildlife artist Michael Dumas has been chosen to receive the Simon Combes Conservation Artist Award from Artists for Conservation, the world’s leading group of artists supporting the environment.
Over the past five decades, Dumas has built a reputation as one of the world’s most respected realist painters, both within and beyond the wildlife art genre.
“I can recognize a Michael Dumas work from across a room, or pick it out from among a crowd of other artists,” Wildlife Art magazine founder Robert J. Koenke once said. “His art is invariably stimulating as well as interesting. Even his drawings are masterpieces. His style is unique, and through it he has made his mark in the art world. This is something every artist must work toward in their career if they are to attain greatness.”
Much of Dumas’s art also reflects his concern for the welfare of the natural world. During his career, Dumas has produced paintings to promote and raise funds for many diverse conservation groups, including The World Wildlife Fund, Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy of Canada, Canadian Parks Partnership, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, and The International Council for the Preservation of Birds.
In 1986, Dumas received the Carling-O’Keefe Professional Conservationist Award in recognition of his role in raising more than $5 million for conservation projects. As a conservation supporter, he has worked alongside such dignitaries as the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Many of Dumas’s works are focused on endangered species, particularly birds, and have become part of important private and government-sponsored special exhibitions.
Inducted into Peterborough’s Pathway of Fame in 2014 and one of the founding members of the Buckhorn Fine Art Festival, Dumas’s drawings and paintings have been exhibited in prestigious venues including the National Museum of Canada, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo, the Suntory Museum of Art in Tokyo and Osaka, the Yamanakako-Takamura Museum of Arts in Tokyo, Mitsukoshi Gallery in Tokyo, Matsuya Gallery in Tokyo, Sogo Gallery in Osaka, and Nature In Art in Gloucester, England.
The Simon Combes Conservation Artist Award is Artists for Conservation’s highest honour. Since 2006, the Vancouver-based organization has bestowed the award annually to artists for exemplifying the achievements and dedication of the award’s namesake, who was a prominent member of Artists for Conservation until his tragic death in 2004, when he was killed by a buffalo near his home in Kenya, Africa.
The organization chose the 72-year-old Dumas to receive the award in recognition of his lifelong dedication to nature and the use of his creative talent and artistic mastery.
“Michael is a rare artistic legend in the world of realism, whose humility and quiet devotion to conservation over decades has resulted in a long-overdue acknowledgement of his contributions,” says Artists for Conservation founder and president Jeff Whiting. “This is made all the more special as we celebrate Artists for Conservation’s 25th anniversary year, that Michael is one of the handful of original founding members. We’re thrilled to honour Michael with our top award this year.”
Previous international recipients of the Simon Combes Conservation Artist Award include David Shepherd, Robert Bateman, John Banovich, Robert Glen and Sue Stolberger (joint recipients), Dr. Guy Harvey, Pollyanna Pickering, Richard Ellis, John and Suzie Seerey-Lester (joint recipients), Karen Laurence-Rowe, Guy Coheleach, Mark Hobson, Guy Combes, Priscilla Baldwin, Anne London, and Kitty Harvill.
“Receiving the Artists for Conservation Simon Combes Conservation Award is a highlight of my career both as an artist and as a conservationist,” Dumas says. “Coming from an organization devoted specifically to conservation through art, it embodies the driving force behind a lifelong effort to express my experiences through art, and to contribute something meaningful in the world beyond the studio.”
Dumas will be formally presented with the award during the Artists for Conservation Festival opening reception on September 21 in Vancouver, B.C.
