The sky and water are the same brilliant blue in Clark Bronson’s watercolor illustration of a landscape filled with migrating canvasback ducks. In the foreground, six ducks’ creamy bellies and gleaming black necks flash the viewer. Bronson has captured the brilliant sheen of their chestnut head and throats. He also captured the endearingly awkward dangle of their large webbed feet— which disclose their prowess as powerful divers. In the background, the sky is filled with more ducks, and beyond those, distant vees of still more ducks flying in Bronson’s deft washes of drifting clouds. Below them, a thin line of mountains and a strip of wispy reeds separates lake and sky— realms that the birds are equally adapted to. For the moment, they choose sky.
Born in 1939 and raised in Kamas, Utah, Clark Bronson became one of the country’s most renowned wildlife artists. Bronson’s love of wildlife began early— his father was a game warden, and growing up in Summit County gave him plentiful exposure to the natural world. He started landing illustration contracts for Utah Fish and Game Magazine while still a teenager. Throughout the 1960s his work was in high demand, winning national awards and acclaim.
He was the illustrator for two best-selling books: Album of North American Wild Animals and Album of North American Birds. At age 30 Bronson turned his focus to bronze sculpture. His work was collected by Winthrop Rockefeller and former President George H.W. Bush, among many others. You can also find a Clark Bronson bronze elk in the Summit County Courthouse. For his third artistic medium, Clark teamed up with his wife, Pauline, to create films of North American wild animals.
