Robert Steiner, Glacier, acrylic, 16 x 24.
Robert Steiner enjoys a stellar reputation, established over 35 years, as one of the world’s most respected waterfowl artists. Yet, paradoxically, his Artistic Excellence award comes for work to which he is a relative newcomer: landscapes, of which his GLACIER is literally a peak example.
To date, the San Francisco-based artist—who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design and a master’s degree in fine art and printmaking at San Francisco State University—has won 84 commissions for duck stamps, the faithfully detailed avian paintings on state and federal hunting licenses. That’s more than any other artist. In the process, those images have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for wetlands conservation while also selling to collectors as limited-edition prints. There’s a five-year waiting list for his originals.
Through his extensive field research, Steiner has also developed a deep love for natural scenery. “But with ducks,” he chuckles, “I was mostly painting marshes, and I’m a big fan of rock formations, whether on the coast or in the mountains.” That desire led him three years ago to begin depicting rocky prominences in America’s National Parks. His winning painting began with a photo he took on a family vacation almost 30 years ago. After working up his composition with “old-fashioned pencil sketches,” he transferred it in minute detail to an aluminum art panel. This was followed by six months of dedicated painting. So far, the only other location Steiner has tackled is Yosemite, “but I have a semi-plan to paint a lot of National Parks in the West,” he says,
Find Steiner’s work at Land Sea & Sky Gallery, San Francisco, CA; www.landseaandskygallery.com; and www.steinerprints.com.
This story appeared in the December 2022/January 2023 issue of Southwest Art magazine.