About Don Luce – Artist
Artist Statement
I strive to stimulate people’s curiosity of nature, deepen their understanding of how nature works and inspire a commitment to protect the natural world. I use painting and drawing to reveal the ecological processes that underlie the landscape, and to capture the sense of energy and excitement I feel while exploring nature.
Most of my works depict the waters, shorelines and surrounding forests of the northern Great Lakes region. These places include northern Lake Huron, Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Ontario. I try to create intimate views into the patterns of light and shade, liquid and solid, movement and calm, transparency and reflection that can be found in these boreal biomes.
Biography
For over forty years, Don combined his interests in science, art and nature to develop original exhibitions at the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum. Exhibition topics included art and nature, ecology, evolution, animal behavior, endangered species, and current university research.
Don also curated the museum’s collection of art, which includes many works by Francis Lee Jaques who painted the museum’s dioramas, and a complete set of John James Audubon’s original Birds of America folio.
For over a decade, Don worked on plans for a new Bell Museum. The new building opened on the University’s St. Paul campus in July 2018. The project included the move and restoration of the museum’s historic dioramas, and the design of a new permanent exhibition gallery called Minnesota Journeys. He retired from the museum in the summer of 2021. Don remains active as an artist and illustrator.
Education
1975-1977 M.S. in Medical and Biological Illustration, University of Michigan
1970-1975 B.S. in Zoology, University of Michigan
Sample Publications
A Natural Curiosity: The Story of the Bell Museum, with Lansing Shepard, Barbara Coffin and Gwen Schagrin, University of Minnesota Press, 2022.
Audubon and the Art of Birds, Bell Museum of Natural History, 2013
Wildlife Art in America, Bell Museum of Natural History, 1994.
Francis Lee Jaques: Artist – Naturalist, with Laura Andrews, University of Minnesota Press, 1982.
Books containing my illustrations
Minnesota’s Natural Heritage: An Ecological Perspective, John Tester, University of Minnesota Press, 1995.
Environmental Science, William Cunningham and Barbara Saigo, Wm. C. Brown, 1990.
Minnesota’s Endangered Flora and Fauna, Barbara Coffin and Lee Pfannmuller, editors, University of Minnesota Press, 1988.
Sample of exhibitions of my art
Desert Protection Act Celebration Exhibition, (group show) Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA November/December 2004.
Nature Observed: Paintings and Drawings by Don Luce, Jim Rataczk and Vera Ming Wong, Great Lakes Aquarium, Duluth, MN 2007
Northern Waters: Paintings and Drawings from the Great Lakes Region by Don Luce, Great Lakes Aquarium, Duluth, MN 2010
View from a Canoe: Paintings and Illustrations by Don Luce, Retrospective exhibition, Bell Museum, 2016
Northern Waters: Paintings by Don Luce, Peter White Public Library, Marquette, Michigan, 2019
Paintings and Pottery: Don Luce and Ruth Talen Erickson, Homewood Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, 2022
Northern Waters: Paintings by Don Luce, White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church, MN 2023
Activities and Awards
Artist-in-Residence at Joshua Tree National Park, California. November 2001 and March 2004
Received the J. N. “Ding” Darling Award for Wildlife Stewardship through the Arts from The Wildlife Society, 2019.
Artist-in-residence at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, University of Minnesota, 2022.
Member of the board of Directors, Susan K. Black Foundation, 2020 – present.
Museum Associate, Bell Museum, University of Minnesota, 2021 – present.