Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen has brought a singular vitality to wildlife art. Uncompromisingly detailed and artfully composed, his work is at once vivid and startling, depicting seldom-illustrated species engaged in life's struggles -- alive. To view his work is to be pulled into the drama and diversity of life. The artist explains his aim is to "say as much as I can about how (an animal) lives and interacts with its environment and with other organisms." Since he was a child growing up in Emigration Canyon, east of Salt Lake City, Brest van Kempen has been a student of nature. He spent his youth exploring untracked back country, drawing, studying and collecting the native fauna. As an adult his travels have taken him around the globe -- throughout the Americas as well as Africa and Asia, studying the ecology of these regions. Brest van Kempen has exhibited his work throughout the world and earned numerous awards in the United States, including 'Best of Show' at the South Eastern Wildlife Expo in Charleston, SC (1995) and the Pacific Rim Wildlife Art Show in Seattle, WA (1995 and 1998), and the Arts for the Parks Wildlife Award (1992). The Society of Animal Artists bestowed on him their highest honor, the 'Award of Excellence' four times, in 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2004. In 1995 USART magazine named him a 'Rising Star' for that year, and both Wildlife Art Magazine and the Florida Wildlife Art Expo included him in their lists of 'Artists for the New Millennium." His work has been the subject of dozens of articles appearing in periodicals in North America, Europe and Asia. The public collections that own his works include the Springville Art Museum, Springville, UT; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI; World Center for Birds of Prey, Boise, ID; and Bennington Center for the Arts, Bennington, VT. Brest van Kempen's work is published by Mill Pond Press, of Venice, FL.