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Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen grew up in Emigration Canyon, Utah, an ideal place to walk and explore and indulge in his youthful fascination for the wild and its varied inhabitants. As a boy, he took up falconry and herpetology and later studied biology. It wasn't until he was approaching his thirtieth birthday that he decided to pursue a career in art. It was then that he felt his skills had reached a point at which it was conceivable that he could be successful as an artist. Although Brest van Kempen had studied perspective in a high school drawing class and had gotten pointers from other artists, he is otherwise self-taught. Once he decided to devote himself exclusively to painting, he gave up his falcons, beloved dogs and reptiles and lived in his van for several years in order to paint, often for up to 100 hours each week.
Brest van Kempen's meticulously executed paintings explore the rich variety of nature. Mysterious and exotic reptiles and amphibians rendered in brilliant jewel tones attest to the artist's belief that chief among nature's hallmarks is its diversity. Brest van Kempen's subjects, while untraditional, are no less threatened than those more commonly seen in wildlife art, and they are just as essential in the grand scheme of nature. Reptiles and amphibians are today's ecological equivalent of yesteryear's canaries in coal mines. Often sensitive to environmental changes, they can red-flag problems not readily apparent (currently the case with the disappearance of many species of frogs; a mystery that has baffled scientists).
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