Artists Commissioned to Paint Presidential Portrait Miniatures for Museum

Feb. 10, 2012 - PRLog -- Wes & Rachelle Siegrist, of Townsend, TN were recently commissioned by the Woolaroc Museum in Bartlesville, OK to paint portrait miniatures of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Hussein Obama.  The Woolaroc, one of the Nation’s premiere western art museums, is one of a handful of museums nationwide with portrait miniature collections of U.S. Presidents.  Portrait miniatures with their centuries-old history developed in Europe in the courts of Renaissance kings and reigned in popularity until the advent of photography in the mid-1800s replaced their function as cherished portable mementos.  The genre surged into a revival commencing in the late 1890s with the formation of several miniature art societies, some of which still exist today.  Modern miniaturists work in a variety of styles covering a wide mix of subject matter: portraits, landscapes, still life, wildlife and marine to name but a few.
   Museum collections of miniature paintings are primarily comprised of portraiture dating from the 1500s through the early 1900s.  The Siegrists’ Presidential portrait miniatures in the Woolaroc place them in the coveted class of living artists with work in the permanent collection of a museum.  Their paintings will join collections started c. 1919 by the miniaturist, A. J. Rowell.  Four sets of Rowell Presidential portrait miniatures are known to exist.  However, modern miniaturists have continued only the collections at the Woolaroc Museum and the Butler Institute of American Art to this day.
   The Siegrists, hailed as “two of the finest living practitioners of this art form” by Everyl Adair, Director of Research and Rare Collections at the R.W. Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport, LA, are also making history with their nationwide solo museum exhibitions.  Fifty of the Siegrists miniature paintings are featured in Exquisite Miniatures by Wes & Rachelle Siegrist. Produced by David J. Wagner, L.L.C, the exhibition tour runs 2010 through 2013 to over a dozen museums and art centers within the United States from coast to coast including: R.W. Norton Art Gallery, LA; West Baton Rouge Museum, LA; Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure, KS; Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, AZ; Dunnegan Gallery of Art, MO; Museum of the Southwest, TX; Yadkin Cultural Arts Center, NC; Dennos Museum Center, MI; San Diego Natural History Museum, CA; Nevada State Museum, NV; ArtCenter Manatee, FL and the Museum of the Gulf Coast, TX.

For further information on miniature art please visit the Siegrists' website: http://www.artofwildlife.com/ or the Woolaroc Museum's website: http://www.woolaroc.org/

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Wes and Rachelle Siegrist are an American husband and wife team of artists who specialize in miniature painting featuring wildlife, landscapes, portraiture and still life. The are actively involved in modern miniature art societies and exhibitions.