Artist Info

Beginning art instruction at age 8, Wick Ahrens had a traditional education, studying at Vesper George School of Art, San Francisco Art Institute, and in the studio of his mentor Clark Vorhees of Weston VT.

The artist had been sculpting whales for two years, working in cabinetry to support his obsession with sea-going mammals, when he took the plunge. He went to sea. In Mexico's Baja Peninsula. Ahrens studied gray whales during their annual retreat from Alaska for mating and calving. In San Ignacio Lagoon, a 40-foot whale allowed the artist to stroke its throat -- an encounter which transformed Ahrens's life and, of course, his work. Not long thereafter, he was commissioned to sculpt an 18 foot whale for permanent display in the Coyote Point Museum -- the world's largest wooden cetacean -- completed in 1985.

During a pilgrimage to Maui, Ahrens swam with humpbacked whales, observing at awesome close range their behavior, their power and grace, even their personalities. In his studio overlooking Tomales Bay, he began hand-painting a series of the massive carved portraits, applying barnacles and scars realistic enough to match the vitality he was now able to capture in their forms. But Ahrens was raised on the butterfat of a Vermont dairy farm and could not stay at sea.

Relocating from California, the artist now sculpts full time in his Peru VT studio. He continues to study his subject by film and photo, with marine biologists and holy men. Devoted to the essential whale, he makes his own life a bridge between sugar pine timbers and those mysterious creatures who left the land 50 million years ago.

Like the national treasure artists of Japan, Ahrens produces only a few pieces each year. Completely original yet authentic reproductions of various species result. His work is represented in MBNA America bank, in other private collections at Newport RI, Aiken SC, Pt. Reyes CA, Berkeley and Los Angeles, as well as public museums and galleries. He is a member of the Copley Society of Boston and the Society of Animal Artists.

COMMISSIONS:

Coyote Point Museum, San Mateo, California, Gray Whale & Calf, Commissioned 1985

Acrylic on Solid Sugar Pine, 18 ft. long x 5 ft. high, weight 990 lbs

EXHIBITS and COLLECTIONS:

Oakland Museum, Oakland CA
Coyote Point Museum, San Mateo CA
Vorpal Gallery, San Francisco CA
Maui Art Exposition, Maui HI
Mystic Maritime Museum, Mystic CT
Inverness Gallery, Inverness CA
Mayhew Gallery, Mendocino CA
Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester VT
Robert Wilson Gallery, Nantucket MA
Quester Gallery, Stonington CT
Witte Museum, San Antonio TX
Kendall Whaling Museum, Sharon MA
New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford MA
Christies, London, England

MBNA America Bank, New York NY
New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, ,MA

MEMBERSHIPS:

Society of Animal Artists
Copley Society of Boston