From Room 8:  The Importance of Captions

A Model Caption

The Caption This painting features the Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor), which breeds throughout North America from Canada to Panama, save for the extreme north and some southwestern deserts, and winters in South America. Common residents of many American cities, nighthawks spend their days sleeping on flat rooftops, where they also lay their eggs (usually two). They typically wait until sundown to take to the air, and their strange buzzing chirp blends in with their surroundings--resembling the sound of some electrical gizmo more than it does the call of a living creature. On summer evenings in Salt Lake City the artist, Carel Pieter Brest van Kampen, loves to watch them catch insects. Watching them, he is always struck by the contrast of two worlds: birds above and people below, each species seemingly oblivious to the other. Juxtaposing the two worlds in his fictitious scene required a bird’s-eye-view. Nighthawks are opportunistic birds who adapted well to urban sites and became common in cities after the mid-1800s, when gravel roofs were introduced. Where artificial light attracts moths, nighthawks often catch them--and once in a while they also catch the eye of those who, like this artist, are looking up from below.[68]

Additions When a Caption Is Used as a Catalogue Entry Brest van Kempen brings a singular vitality to wildlife art. This may be due to his strong connection with his subjects. As he notes, “While many bird artists paint in order to share their experiences with the wider world, my motivation is more selfish. I usually paint as a way of seeing things I would like to see, but could never see in any other way. This includes hypothetical but plausible situations or impossible viewpoints. I paint in an extremely fussy style where every detail is more visible than it would be in a photograph. In the real world you can move in closer to a subject or change your position in order to discover more about what you’re viewing. I try to design my work to give my viewer a similar experience.” When painting this nighttime scene, he says, “I had great fun inventing the city details, incorporating lame jokes and inside barbs at friends and acquaintances. Close scrutiny even reveals a hint of my own face in the ’67 Dodge van that served as my studio/home at the time I painted this.” Brest van Kempen’s work has been exhibited widely across six continents, garnering numerous awards, including the Arts for the Parks Wildlife Award, three Society of Animal Artists Awards of Excellence, and Best of Show at the Pacific Rim Wildlife Art Show, the South Eastern Wildlife Expo, and many other major group shows. His representational style is ideally suited for the wide variety of birds he paints, including hornbills, bee-eaters, and members of the falcon family, particularly those found in the tropics. He has a presence on the Web, at www.cpbrestvankempen.com; www.artistsofnature.com; www.parcplace.org/PARCArtWeb/CarelPages/carel_pbv_kempen.htm; and http://king2.kingsnake.com/gallery/CPBVK, and in the printed archive; see especially his recent book, Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding; The Art of Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen.[69]
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