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As
far back as Josef Moravec can remember, he was fascinated with
the natural world, particularly the prehistoric world that he
first glimpsed in museums dioramas and reconstructed fossils. It
was a world uninhabited by humans, a world of unspoiled natural
beauty when the great dinosaurs roamed the land and enormous sea
creatures ruled the oceans. Inspired by visions of this land
before time, Josef's vivid imagination and extraordinary
artistic sensibility compelled him to draw and paint that
long-ago world.
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A kind
of child prodigy, Josef began drawing dinosaurs, however
rudimentary, at the age of three, and created his first oil
painting when he was ten years old. Throughout his youth he
learned and expand his talent.
Although formally schooled in graphics, his artistic
sensibilities led him to appreciate and study the "Old
Masters" such as Leonardo da Vinci, E. Pieter Brugel and
Rembrandt.
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In the field of
paleontology, Josef's most important influence has been Czech
paleoartist Zdenek Burian, whom he admired and studied from a very
young age. And like Burian, Josef has always strived to show us
the prehistoric world as it really was, through the eyes of
paleontologists.However, Josef Moravec's unique vision of
prehistoric life is not simply the inspired imaginings of gifted
artists but the thoughtful and intelligent result of his education
in paleontology. And, as any serious artist of the human form must
be knowledgeable of human anatomy, so a master paleoartist must
understand the anatomy of his prehistoric models. Josef's tireless
study of prehistoric animals, their history and original habitat
nurtured his natural ability to translate skeletal remains, which
are often incomplete, into fully realized depictions of these
animals in their own time and place.
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His love
for this " lost world", combined with a dedicated
attention to detail in his work, has allowed him to re-create
these wondrous creatures and their habitat, to breathe life into
his paintings, and to open for us a special window onto that
world.
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Today,
Josef is one of the most respected artists of prehistoric animals
and their environments, having won praise from Museums of Natural
History throughout Europe and the United States. His paintings
take us through the complete evolution of Earth Science time
periods and epochs. Both the casual observer and the serious
student can get a rare look at life on Earth before humans came
along, from the Precambrian Era of 4.6 billions years ago to the
Pleistocene Epoch 20,000 years ago.
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To find out about
where Josef's paintings
have been exhibited, visit the traveling
exhibit page.
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