Murrell Butler
Tiger Swallowtail
In Louisiana, and indeed all over America, rare is the wildlife artist whose work does not show the influence of John James Audubon (1785–1851). The pioneering ornithologist, naturalist, and artist’s Birds of America portfolio is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever created. Its creator often credited as a pioneer of the American conservation movement, as evidenced by the National Audubon Society created in his name. Small wonder, then, that an artist raised in West Feliciana parish—which Audubon himself described as “my Happy Land”—should find himself inspired by the great man’s style and subject matter. Murrell Butler has painted the birds, animals, plants and landscapes of West Feliciana Parish for all his adult life. Given that Audubon painted thirty of the 435 life-sized watercolors in his Birds of America portfolio while living in West Feliciana in 1821, Butler needn’t go far in search of inspiration. Indeed, to complete many works he hardly need leave the 350-acre family property, Oak Hill, where he has lived for more than forty years. Since it’s always constructive to visit an artist in his or her natural habitat, so to speak, I took a drive out to Oak Hill, to let the hills, trees, birds and insects do some of the talking.
Butler was born in New Orleans, but when he was four his family moved to St. Francisville, after which he spent much time at the home of his grandparents Edward and Addie Butler, who owned Greenwood Plantation and some two thousand acres of the surrounding Tunica Hills of West Feliciana. Birders and amateur naturalists whose home was hung with Audubon paintings, the elder Butlers kept a library of ornithological books, which a young Murrell would spend hours poring over before setting out into the woods, pastures, and creek beds of the property in search of the specimens he’d read about. In his twenties Butler went to work at St. Francisville’s Oakley, the West Indies-style plantation at which Audubon had lived as a tutor in 1821, and which today interprets the story of the artist/naturalist’s time in Louisiana as the Audubon State Historic Site. After seven years steeped in Audubon’s personal story and painting techniques, Butler knew he wanted to be an artist full-time. From Oakley he went to work for a company that specialized in creating background dioramas for museum exhibits, and honed his skills as an oil painter while painting dioramas for fifteen museums in Louisiana and surrounding states. Commissions to freelance illustrations for birdwatching books followed, as did pieces for National Wildlife Foundation postage stamps and the National Wild Turkey Foundation. Butler won the Louisiana Duck Stamp contest in 2001 and the Wild Louisiana Stamp & Print Contest in 1994.
These days Butler turns his talent for close observation and his facility with oils to capturing the landscapes of Louisiana—particularly those of the remote, unspoiled Tunica Hills—as precisely as possible. Once he has decided upon a scene to paint he returns to the location many times, absorbing its sights, sounds, the play of light across its surfaces, and the quiet presence of the creatures that call it home. Then, armed with photographs, familiarity, and a lifetime’s worth of technical experience, he retreats to Oak Hill and begins to paint.
See more work by Murrell Butler at St. Francisville’s Backwoods Gallery, Collier Gallery, or the Judi Betts Gallery in Baton Rouge, or at murrellbutlerstudio.com. For a more personal introduction to the artist and the landscapes that inspire him, Butler periodically opens his Oak Hill property to the general public for birding tours during spring. Visit the website or contact the artist at murrellbuter@bellsouth.net to learn more.
