Guy Hepner Gallery

Hunt Slonem Finches Thurs For Sale

Hunt Slonem
Hunt Slonem - Finches Thurs, 2021, Oil on canvas

Finches Thurs, 2021

Oil on canvas

40 x 40

About this work

Hunt Slonem stands as one of the most distinctive and commercially successful Neo-Expressionist painters working today. His work is held in over one hundred museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Slonem has cultivated a singular artistic identity through his repeated exploration of nature motifs, particularly his celebrated depictions of birds, butterflies, and rabbits, which have become synonymous with his practice and highly sought after by collectors internationally. Finches Thurs exemplifies Slonem's signature approach to avian subject matter. Executed in oil on canvas at an impressive forty by forty inches, the work presents a dense composition of finches rendered with the artist's characteristic rapid, gestural brushwork. The birds appear in rhythmic repetition across the picture plane, their forms emerging from richly textured layers of pigment. Slonem's technique involves working quickly and intuitively, often completing multiple canvases in a single session, a meditative process he likens to a form of prayer. This spiritual dimension infuses the work with an energy that transcends mere representation. The hatched, almost scratched quality of the painted surface creates visual vibration, while the accumulated imagery evokes both abundance and contemplation. Created in 2021, this painting represents the artist at the height of his mature practice, demonstrating the confident execution and thematic consistency that have defined his six-decade career. For acquisition inquiries regarding Finches Thurs or other available works by Hunt Slonem, please contact Guy Hepner.

Price on Application

Edition & Provenance

Year
2021
Medium
Oil on canvas

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Finches Thurs

About Hunt Slonem

Hunt Slonem has established himself as one of the most distinctive American Neo-Expressionist painters working today, recognized internationally for his exuberant explorations of nature, spirituality, and historical architecture. Born in 1951 in Kittery, Maine, Slonem spent his formative years moving across the globe due to his father's naval career, living in Hawaii, Nicaragua, and various locations throughout the United States. This peripatetic childhood cultivated an early appreciation for diverse cultures and exotic wildlife that would later become central to his artistic vision.

Slonem studied at Vanderbilt University and Tulane University before receiving his BFA from Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1972. His early work demonstrated an affinity for the gestural intensity of Abstract Expressionism, though he quickly developed his signature style characterized by bold, repetitive imagery rendered with vigorous brushwork and rich chromatic layering. His most celebrated series feature rabbits, tropical birds, and butterflies, subjects drawn from his personal menagerie of live exotic birds that has at times numbered over a hundred.

Beyond his nature-inspired works, Slonem has devoted significant attention to restoring historic Southern plantation homes, a passion that informs his architectural paintings and antique collections. His Abraham Lincoln portrait series reflects an ongoing fascination with American history and the power of repeated imagery as meditation.

Slonem's work resides in over one hundred museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Orleans Museum of Art. He has been the subject of numerous museum exhibitions and maintains a robust presence in the secondary market, with auction results demonstrating consistent collector demand across his various series.

Working prolifically from his studios in New York and Louisiana, Slonem continues to produce work that bridges decoration and spiritual contemplation, approaching each canvas with an almost devotional repetition that transforms familiar subjects into meditations on abundance and renewal. Guy Hepner is pleased to represent Hunt Slonem's work, offering collectors access to pieces that exemplify his singular approach to color, pattern, and natural beauty.

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