About the Artist
Todd Telander
From Scientist to Artist
Art and the study of nature have been dual passions for Todd Telander since childhood in Chico, California at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains. After his freshman year at U.C. Davis, he transferred to the seaside town of Santa Cruz where he was inspired by diversity and abundance of wildlife and the dramatic landscape of rocky coastline and Redwood forests. While earning degrees in Environmental Studies and Biology, he was happiest when his coursework took him out of the classroom for field studies to the coast, mountains, and some of California's most scenic parks. In particular, the sketches he make of birds, plants, and insects as part of his journal became what he looked forward to working on the most. Fortuitously, he discovered a graduate-level program in natural science illustration at the same university and immediately recognized his calling as a science illustrator. Beginning freelance work with a former professer in San Francisco, he eventually obtained contracts with clients on a national and international level, providing highly rendered and scienticically accurate ink drawings and paintings for the likes of museums, aquariums, zoos, field guides and other books, and numerous retail companies.
During this time he was entranced by wildlife artists, in particular the Canadian Robert Bateman and New Zealander Raymond Harris Ching, and their ability to incorporate animals into the landscape and create feeling in their paintings through careful design, use of color, and a sense of atmosphere. Lacking formal fine art training, Telander learned some of their techniques on his own and also taught himself the fundamentals of classical painting by looking at other paintings, reading books, and lot's of experimentation! After moving to Boulder, Colorado, his work became quite painterly (a far cry from the scientific studies) as he explored impressionism, surrealism, and abstraction, noting artists such as Georgia O'Keefe, Claude Monet, and Mark Rothko as influences. He also spent time in Denver at the Art Student League where he first explored figure drawing and plein air painting.
Taos, New Mexico was his next home where he settled with his wife, Kirsten Telander, a writer. In this artistically rich community, Telander began to explore the nuances of landscape painting as he continued his study of birds. The artists he met there gave him exceptional insight and encouragement, among them David Leffel and Ray Vinella.
With two toddlers in tow, Todd and Kirsten made the transition to the southeastern Washington enclave of Walla Walla, a community known for wheat, sweet onions, and incredible wine. For Telander, the landscape of the valley and surrounding Blue Mountains was a painter's dream come true. Nearly every day provides subltle shifts in light and color as the seasons progress and the fields and trees grow, then fade. Working both out doors and in his studio, he is committed to improving his work in a way to arouse the senses, not soley reproduce a scene. Drawing inspiration from the late nineteenth century tonalist artists, in particular George Inness, he studies the power of careful composition, harmony of color, and transcendant, atmospheric effects of light.
Telander and his wife, Kirsten, owned a small gallery in downtown Walla Walla, the Telander Gallery, for ten years, where they exhibited Todd's work alongside amazing guest artists. They closed the gallery at the end of 2023, giving them more freedom to travel and more flexibility to persue artistic and family adventures. Currently, Todd works and meets clients in his home studio Walla Walla and teaches landcape painting workshops in various locations. In addition to selling existing paintings, he regularly takes on commissions to suit the specific needs of his collectors.
