Tim Donovan
Wildlife and the outdoors have always been Tim’s love and recreating these images is his passion. Growing up in Maryland Tim spent his summers on the shores of Solomon’s Island by the Chesapeake Bay. As a young boy he experienced a wide diversity of wildlife from otters to ospreys that would both capture his spirit and direct his path.
Tim’s love of wildlife was passed down from his father. Tim’s father was a helicopter pilot and would donate his time flying researchers from the Peregrine Falcon Program to nesting sites for the purpose of counting and banding the birds.
“I can remember having at any given time around the house skunks, raccoons, ferrets and turtles and numerous birds. Even as a child I loved the animals form and beauty, I would sculpt birds out of any material I could find.”
At the age of twelve Tim’s father started him at what would become a thirty-seven year carrier in taxidermy specializing in birds. This anatomical knowledge would prove invaluable for his paintings.
By the age of twenty Tim started sculpting out of wood and in his first competition won a first place and best of show.
Tim did not seriously pursue painting until the age of thirty. Being self taught he wanted more education so he enrolled in college majoring in both art and biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio to be a medical illustrator. After college he still wanted more. So he apprenticed with artist Matt Zoll a traditional realist. Here he learned how to grind his own pigments and make his own mediums and oils. The two years spent with Matt dramatically changed Tim’s work.
Tim has had the opportunity to live all across the country from northern California to Texas and the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia where Tim currently resides.
Tim’s studio time is filled with painting for major art shows, contest and commission work
Tim was trained in oil paints. But his tight realistic style has leaded him to work primarily in egg tempera and acrylic. By occasionally combining the two mediums he gets a very unique luminosity to his paintings and softness to the fur.
Over the last several years his attention has been focused on using his art to support organizations for the preservation of wildlife and their habitat. He has donated his time and art to support various conservation organizations including Living With Wolves, Ducks Unlimited, Vital Ground and The Timber Wolf Alliance just to name a few.
In 1999 Tim was awarded the coveted Conservation Service Award, by Ducks Unlimited for his outstanding contributions for the preservation of North American Waterfowl. In 2003 he completed the illustration of the book, “Beyond Little Red Riding Hood” for the Timber Wolf Alliance. In 2006 Tim started working with Jack Hanna to help the preservation of both the polar bear and the mountain gorillas, which he continues to support today through art.