**Originally Listed At $250**

Charles Timothy Prutzer (American, b. 1954). Branches in Stream. Watercolor. Signed on upper right, n.d. A soothing watercolor portraying the stylized image of tree branches reflecting in a placid stream; a relatively overlooked scene here is rendered with refined sensibility and careful detail as Prutzer puts an impressionistic emphasis on light and color. He has applied transparent washes in beautiful shades of blue, green, beige, and grey, while strategically allowing areas of the white of the paper to show through and define various forms. Prutzer creates his works in plein-air, preferring the intimacy of field work to painting from photographs. In his words, "Distant snapshots don't contain the spirit or honesty captured in plein air." Size of piece: 10.2" L x 7" W (25.9 cm x 17.8 cm); with frame and matte: 16.2" L x 13" W (41.1 cm x 33 cm)

Colorado native Charles Timothy Prutzer began his career as a protege to bird artist Donald Leo Mallick at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in 1966 when he was only 12 years old. In time, Prutzer became a muralist, creating more than 30 natural history murals for both U.S. and international venues. Prutzer was also named the artist-in-residence at the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve in Heidelberg, South Africa in 1979 where he regularly contributed to the Birds in Art exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum.

In 2011, Laura Zuckerman featured Prutzer as a rising star in the world of wildlife art, along with Brian Grimm, Luke Frazier, Jan Martin McGuire, and Amy Ringholz in her wonderful article entitled "The New Wild Bunch" (Western Art & Architecture Winter/Spring 2011). Zuckerman rightfully described these artists' works as being "at the crossroads where representational art meets the almost abstract." More specifically about Prutzer she wrote, "Honesty is the aim and integrity the method for Charles Timothy Prutzer, who applies himself so wholly to each wildlife painting that his production is intentionally low. Prutzer's drive for authenticity has launched journeys to Africa, India and Spain for firsthand views of the animals he depicts."

Prutzer's artwork has been published in Best of Wildlife Art, edited by Rachel Rudin Wolf, 1999; Wildlife Art, edited by Edward Aldrich, 1998; and Artists for Nature in Extremadura, edited by Nicholas Hammond, 1995. His paintings have been exhibited at Beijing Natural History Museum, The People's Republic of China; the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin; the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid Spain and the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, Scotland.

Provenance: ex-private Bishop Family Trust collection, the Trust of the late Bill Bishop, a noted antiquarian with shops in Scottsdale, Arizona and Allenspark, Colorado, USA, acquired before 2010

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#173743

Artist signature in upper right corner. Fit with matting and frame with suspension wire on verso. A few minor nicks to frame, but painting is in overall excellent condition. Has not been examined outside of frame.