“Lori McNee – From Duck Stamps to Monet’s Garden” is an excerpt from a recent interview by Eye on Sun Valley, an online Idaho news channel.

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Lori McNee in her Idaho studio.

From Duck Stamps to Monet’s Garden – Interview with Lori McNee

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Lori McNee’s mother once told her that she could hold a bird in her hands if she sprinkled salt on its tail.
The 5-year-old took her mother’s words to heart, running around the back yard of her Scottsdale, Ariz., home trying to sprinkle salt on birds’ tails so they couldn’t fly.
She never did become the great bird catcher she imagined. But Lori did get to see birds up close and personal thanks, thanks to a neighbor lady who rehabilitated injured birds, keeping them in cages in her living room.

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“Evergreen Mist,” 24-by-48-inch oil on canvas, is part of the 2018 winter exhibition at Kneeland Gallery.

And today birds dominate many of McNee’s oil paintings.
McNee has included paintings of Bohemian waxwings, hummingbirds, ravens and a snowy owl in her exhibition currently on display at Kneeland Gallery in Ketchum. And she will be wearing her art during the Valentine’s Gallery Walk from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16.
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Lori with her popular art instructional book, Fine Art Tips with Lori McNee

Though the artist started drawing at 5, McNee was frustrated by college art classes that focused on abstract work, rather than the more traditional art she was interested in.
So her formal training came from workshops offered by those like Canadian naturalist and painter Robert Bateman and Robert Moore, a longtime Kneeland Gallery artist whose home overlooks the Snake River Canyon near Declo… READ MORE.
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Lori McNee melts bees wax with a blowtorch to add depth to some of her paintings. “It’s very labor intensive, but I love it. It’s like playing with candle wax as a kid—it sets up quickly.”

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