Rick Shaefer
About the Artist
Rick Shaefer is primarily known for his large charcoal drawings of landscapes and endangered species. The animals are often drawn life-size, in a still posture, confronting the viewer with a calm gaze of meaningful engagement.
Four early drawings were of life-size trees: two fallen oaks, an uprooted sycamore stump, and an old sugar maple (shown below) that lived by a stream near his home. These are rendered in a signature cursive mark-making that captures both the intricacies of the bark and the particular histories of these unique beings. The maple in particular, which at some point had suffered a lightning strike that took off most of the upper trunk and branches, was drawn over many years until its final demise in a storm. Before that it had been home to many animals, including a family of ducks — their nest is visible in the upper crown in the drawing.
Rick’s work can be found on his website: www.rickshaefer.com. Also on Instagram: @rickshaefer.
Sugar Maple, 2015, Charcoal on vellum mounted on aluminum, 96" x 42"
"My special bond with this particular tree grew over about 20 years watching it morph into a high rise for assorted animals and insects and finally lying in the stream that it had stood diligently by for its lifespan.
It is so in keeping with the old maple that was the subject of my drawing "Sugar Maple" that you used in your article, Wild Attention for Wildlands. It stood there long after it usually would have had it been in a "kept" grounds and was the home to a myriad of creatures including a family of wood ducks. Lightning had topped it years before I came across it and then several storms finally, over many years, toppled it into the adjoining stream where it lay majestically in regal repose and became a haven for aquatic life. We just loved that old tree and loved seeing it age in grace.
I made several drawings over these years, "Sugar Maple" being the only life-size one. A beautiful, near magical, being that provided so much to the locale it inhabited." — Rick Shaefer