White Crowned Sparrow by Ron Parker, 16x24-Inch

This ready to hang, gallery-wrapped art piece features a white crowned sparrow resting on a fallen tree. Ron Parker began painting as a career a little late in life. At the age of 35, he was inspired, after seeing an exhibition of original paintings by Fenwick Lansdowne, to try painting wildlife himself. His first effort, in 1977, was successful and he quit work and began painting full time. Using watercolors, a medium with which he was familiar, he began doing vignette paintings of birds and mammals, Within four months he was selling originals through the Harrison Gallery in Vancouver. Giclee (jee-clay) is an advanced printmaking process for creating high quality fine art reproductions. The attainable excellence that Giclee printmaking affords makes the reproduction virtually indistinguishable from the original piece. The result is wide acceptance of Giclee by galleries, museums, and private collectors. Gallery wrap is a method of stretching an artist's canvas so that the canvas wraps around the sides and is secured a hidden, wooden frame. This method of stretching and preparing a canvas allows for a frameless presentation of the finished painting.