The Wildlife Art of Scott Hiestand

Scott Hiestand

Scott, an Ormond Beach resident since 1999, was raised in St. Petersburg, Florida. He obtained a four-year art degree from Hussian School of Art, Philadelphia, in 1970. After graduation from art school, Scott was employed by Hallmark Cards to create flower settings and wildlife greeting cards. He later worked as a graphic artist for the St. Petersburg Times for fifteen years, where a large part of his responsibility was to illustrate the outdoors pages. While at the Times, Scott created an illustrated column that ran once a week entitled "The Nature of Florida." He wrote about and illustrated a different Florida species each week. Scott moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado in the mid-1980s and was the art director of the local paper there for eight years.

After returning to Florida, Scott worked as a graphic artist for the Orlando Sentinel newspaper for eight years. Scott now works for the Daytona Beach News-Journal as a staff artist.

Scott loves wildlife and the outdoors. As an avid falconer, his appreciation for nature and wildlife is reflected in his work. His medium for his painting is acrylic on board, and for his sculptures, wire/mixed medium. Scott's wire sculptures evolved from an art school assignment to make an animal out of one continuous piece of wire. He made an iguana (as he happened to have a live model at the time). Although the use of one continuous piece of wire is no longer done, the wire process has evolved with experiments in various types of wire and various materials used in covering and forming the animal or bird. Today's wire works involve three guages of wire with casting cloth used to cover the piece. The concept of casting cloth as "skin" makes it exciting to work with the negative space on the bird or animal.

Scott is a State of Indiana upland game bird stamp contest winner and he also designed the Florida automobile license tag. Additionally, he has done past prints for the Wild Turkey Federation and Ducks Unlimited (St. Petersburg Chapter).

Outlets for Scott's artwork include numerous outdoor art shows such as Mainsail Art Festival, the Nature Center Show in St. Petersburg and the Southeastern Wildlife Conference Show, etc, as well as the Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Science, Museum Store, and DiMaggio's Gallery & Framing, Daytona Beach.

Scott has won numerous awards in Florida Art Festivals and his artwork is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Central Florida Community College, and various private collectors.