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When we invite an artist to visit us, it is mostly but not always because we think their work would fit well with the natural environments where we work. And, of course, because we love what we have seen of their art. The slideshow above includes current and boyhood illustrations by an artist who would hopefully appreciate our daily attention to his beloved creatures in various places:

…The artist and author James Prosek uses vivid and highly detailed watercolors to capture the natural world. He’s compared often to Audubon, though unlike the 19th-century artist’s focus on birds, Prosek’s work most often focuses on animals with fins instead of feathers. His books include The Complete Angler,Trout: An Illustrated History, Ocean Fishes: Paintings of Saltwater Fish, and Trout of the World Updated and Revised.

Long before Prosek became a world-famous artist, he was a kid who used art as a way to work through the ups and downs of a challenging childhood, much like the lead character in the novel Okay for Now. As a boy, Prosek found comfort in art and in nature…

More With James Prosek

Slip Into The Secret Life of Eels Oct. 29, 2010

A Mother’s Abandonment and a Life in Art, Nature Feb. 28, 2007

Creative Spaces: Artist James Prosek’s Studio July 27, 2004

Read the whole review here.