SIBERIAN SOLITUDE

As usual for this exuberant wildlife enthusiast and artist, Daniel Smith was busy in 2011. He won the Bob Kuhn Wildlife Award at the Masters of the American West show in Los Angeles. After the many feet of spring snow outside his Montana studio melted, he was off to the American Masters Exhibition and Sale at the Salmagundi Club in New York in May and The Prix de West Invitational in June. The artist and his studio were featured in the May/June issue of "Art of the West." Siberian tigers are found in the Amur River region of Russia and China and in North Korea. Estimates put their numbers in the wild at 200-300. Tiger bone and other body parts are used in traditional Chinese and Korean medicines. Siberians are endangered and protected, and poaching is their pre-eminent threat. This comment by John Geraghty in his April “Natural Talent” story about Dan in "Western Art Collector" perfectly describes the majestic portrait of the legendary Siberian. “In viewing the work of this accomplished artist, you are sharing his experiences emotionally and aesthetically, the posture and musculature of his animals personifies a time and place, a natural reaction to their environment.”