Walter William Ferguson was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1930 and died in 2015. He received his formal art training under scholarship at Yale School of Fine Arts and

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

. He has exhibited widely in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and abroad and his

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

s are in many

private collection A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

s. Ferguson is a 1948 graduate of

Midwood High School Midwood High School is a high school located at 2839 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, administered by the New York City Department of Education. It has an enrollment of 3,938 students. Its H-shaped building, with six Ionic order, Ioni ...

, and is known to have painted at least two murals at the school while he was a student. Both murals still exist in their original locations as of January 2016. Noted for his versatility, Ferguson paints a wide variety of subjects from

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

s and

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

s. His classical technique combined with modern design have been developed over 60 years and honed to a high degree of sensitivity. In addition to his

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

, Ferguson has produced limited editions of

serigraph Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen in a "flood stroke" ...

s and litho-offsets prints. He has written and illustrated seven books and illustrated 26 books and many articles. He was commissioned by

LIFE magazine ''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly publi ...

to illustrate

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

. Ferguson wrote and illustrated a book on ''The Mammals of Israel''. He also illustrated the book written by Paula Arnold called ''Birds of Israel'' in 1962. His paintings have helped raise funds to reintroduce into Israel animals that became

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

since Biblical times. Ferguson has worked for the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

where he did paintings reconstructing extinct animals. He moved to Israel in 1965, where he briefly taught art at Bezalel School of Art. He has been staff artist for the Department of

Zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

of the

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

for 29 years. In addition to his fine art, Ferguson has contributed to zoology and

Paleoanthropology Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinsh ...

. A 2010 interview of Walter Ferguson by Ynet, Israel's largest and most popular news and content website, was published under the Ecology & Science that covered his career work including a live interview. The works by Ferguson have helped increase the popularity of animal artwork in Israel, as reported in the Jerusalem Post article "Wildlife art exhibit to open at Jerusalem Bird Observatory" by Sharon Udasin on October 27, 2011. Walter Ferguson was asked to contribute several environmental paintings to the first Environmental Impact show and subsequent tour that premiered at the Canton Museum of Art in Ohio on September 1, 2013. Ferguson died on December 18, 2015. David J. Wagner published an article in the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB), which is an initiative of Stanford University, called "Environmental Ideology Through Art" in 2016 that included a description of Walter Ferguson's work among other exhibitors. In 2017, Ynet published another article under a quote Ferguson used to describe his work's objective of capturing the spark of life in his paintings. An article,"Memory of an Environmental Impact", was published in the MAHB during the follow-on exhibit and tour called Environmental Impact II that is coping with the 2020 pandemic.

References

* Ferguson, Walter Birds of All Kinds, Golden Press, 1959 * Macclintock, Dorcas, Ferguson, Walter, Squirrels of North America, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1970 * Ferguson, Walter W., Living animals of the bible, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons * Ferguson, Walter W. The Mammals of Israel. Jerusalem: Gefen, 2002 * Ferguson, Walter W. The Society of Animal Artists, 33rd Annual Members Exhibition, 1993, page 43. * Ferguson, Walter W. The Society of Animal Artists, 34th Annual Members Exhibition, 1994, page 46. * Ferguson, Walter W. The Society of Animal Artists, 36th Annual Members Exhibition, 1996, page 57. * Ferguson, Walter W. The Society of Animal Artists, 38th Annual Members Exhibition, 1998, page 45. * Ferguson, Walter W. The Society of Animal Artists, 43rd Annual Members Exhibition, 2003, page 55. * Ferguson, Walter W. The Society of Animal Artists, 46th Annual Members Exhibition, 2006, American Flamingos. * Ferguson, Walter W. Birds in Art, 15th Anniversary, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, 1990, page 59. * Ferguson, Walter W. Birds in Art, 16th Anniversary, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, 1991, page 56.

External links

Drawing Israel’s wildlife

Information Center for Israeli Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Walter W 1930 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists Pratt Institute alumni Yale School of Art alumni Midwood High School alumni American portrait painters Painters from New York City American painters of animals American landscape painters American bird artists 20th-century American male artists