Superior native brings nature to life in art work

How is an artist born? For Tempe Regan, self-proclaimed nature artist it was while exploring one stone, one mushroom, one tadpole and one bird at a time.

“Growing up the first thing I would do when I got home was change clothes and run outside and disappear in the woods, the ponds, the creek exploring, learning, observing, collecting and really falling in love and feeling a sense of belonging there,” she shared.

“I remember my mom yelling from the house many evenings around 6 or 7 p.m. "Tempeeeeee, supper's readddyyyyy", and I would always be way far away and barely hear her and quickly drop whatever I was doing and go scampering back to the house as fast I could. I mean I was exploring alone at a very young age and I give a lot of credit to my parents for letting me do that and trusting I would be ok. And it was so formative for me.”

Regan was born and raised in Superior, where her playground was navigating the woods out her own backdoor. From a young age she was an examiner of the environment around her, extremely inquisitive, and had an eye for smallest details.

It was her passion for the outdoors that ultimately led Regan to her other forte; drawing. Regan recalled, “First came my love of nature hands down. But I always drew and it was always very nature-inspired and that has become one of my slogans as a professional artist.”

While nurturing her artistic abilities was important, Regan also had to focus on a career path. After graduating from Superior High School she attended the University of Montana and earned a Bachelor’s Degree with high honors in Wildlife Biology. Once she left Missoula, Regan held seasonal jobs as a wildlife technician and wildlife research assistant in Wyoming, Massachusetts and Montana.

During that same time, she began applying for graduate school. Regan said, “It is not easy to get jobs or graduate positions in the field and it took a year and about 10 applications and four interviews before I was accepted into a Master's of Raptor Biology program. The only one in the nation and maybe even the world with such a degree trajectory at Boise State University, in Boise Idaho.”

With her Master's completed she then worked for a non-profit as an Avian Research Biologist in Boise, for the Intermountain Bird Observatory. She remembered, “During this time, I began drawing again because I had no time to do that while in graduate school.” Now she resides in Salmon, Idaho, where Regan is a Regional Wildlife Diversity Biologist for a state wildlife agency.

“My main career is wildlife conservation and my dream has always been to go professional as an artist and to educate through art and inspire conservation through art that connects every human to their natural environment,” Regan explained.

For Regan that connection runs deep into her childhood “I would observe and record when the geese returned, when the morels popped up and where, and when the first spring peeper began singing in the ponds near our house.” she added, “I would go out and catch all the salamanders and frogs and count them and return them to where I found them...I mean I was a fulltime frog farmer! And the frogs and salamanders and beavers and geese taught me so much.”

Now in her conservation efforts and creative endeavors Regan said, “I strive to honor them and their needs in my professional job as well as through my art. I want to tell their story. I want people to see that every animal, great and small, matters and we owe it to them to watch out for them, protect them, conserve them and especially in light of all our extractive activities from nature.”

Regan’s artistic background was founded in her 4-H projects growing up, and encouraged by her school art teacher Mrs. Kelly. She recalled, “I enjoyed that class so much because I would get lost in the drawing, the creating and when I came up for air before me on some paper was this incredible story and art piece and I would always think "Wow, I did that?". Honestly, that is still how art is for me today as well. I can't believe I've been given this gift and I am honored that people love my art, want to buy it and want it in their homes. How special!”

One year ago, Regan started selling her artwork. Regan said, “Somehow, with the immense help and skills of my very talented brother's graphic design and website building skills we've created a name, a brand, colors, layouts, a system and Tempe Regan-Nature Artist was born on the world wide web last March.”

With numerous pieces of artwork to choose from on her website, Regan prides herself on her versatility as an artist. “My pencil work is probably the most popular and I love it because of the control I have over a piece by using pencils. You can get very tight details and accuracy. I am all about the details,” expressed Regan. She also does watercolor, gouache, graphite, and acrylics.

Under the shopping tab on her website, art connoisseurs can peruse categories consisting of animals and landscapes, botanicals, pollinators, feather studies, and bird portraits. Regan’s collections have been formed through countless hours of hard work and diligence.

“The process...I come up with a concept or am inspired by my work or an observation or an idea I encounter in nature and want to put on paper. I gather reference photos and come up with some amalgamation in a piece and lightly sketch out on paper,” Regan detailed. “Then say, I am using pencils, I go through layers and layers of building color and burnishing, going over with white to blend all the colors and smooth them, and repeat. Finally, after many hours, days and destroyed hands the piece will be finished.”

Her pieces can take an incredibly long time to construct and that is a factor in the pricing. Regan noted, “The colored pencil pieces take the longest because of how many layers of color it takes and how careful you have to be. You can't erase the pencils, so you have to get it right the first time!”

Some of her most intricate feather studies, like the Ghost Raven, took nearly 20 hours to complete. She stated, “That might not sound like much but with a full-time job, that means I am snatching an hour or 30 mins every night and a few hours on the weekends to get a piece done, it can actually span weeks or months to finish a piece! There is lots of blood, sweat, and passion and love in each piece. And of course, nature.”

Most serious artists can relate that scheduling or forcing oneself to create, draw, or design simply doesn’t work. Making art is often not about technique it’s about mindset. Regan agreed, “I prefer to draw from that place of inspiration, rather than sitting down and making myself just draw. Hence why sometimes I will go for long periods without making anything because I will basically have an artist block or inability to motivate to go to that intense space.”

But when she gets into that perfect rhythm that’s where the magic happens. Regan explained, “My mind is not thinking, my instincts take over and I am just lost in the observation, the lines, the care, the patterns and the process. When I come up for air, or that pattern breaks, I usually am done for the night. It’s hard to get in that space and hard to leave. Once I've left the art-trance, I can't make it come back.”

On Regan’s website most of her artwork has a limited-edition cap of 40 prints. The fewer prints produced, the higher value of the piece. For those who purchase her art the prints are made on archival paper with archival, light and color-fast inks. She said, “You are paying for what you are getting, the best quality print money can buy. I started out with smaller limited edition runs because, I had no idea if any would sell. Well, to my delight they do sell and people love the feather studies.”

Her Ghost Raven and Ghost Kestrel feather studies are halfway sold out. Regan delighted, “I am so pleased with that! I have started upping the edition number by a little bit but they are still very small compared to many artists. That means my prints are not going to be as widespread but of higher value.”

Quite frequently Regan will take custom requests and she sells those original pieces on commission. Originals of her other gallery pieces online are available to buy also but they are not cheap. She noted, “You can't argue with the intrinsic quality and value of an original piece. As great a quality as the print is, when you put them side by side you can tell. The original is always where the piece glows the most.” Having prints though allows Regan a larger audience, as well the opportunity of support from her friends and family.

Regan’s art is currently for sale and on display in an art gallery in Salmon, Idaho at The Purple Easel. Down the road she has big dreams as an artist. She shared, “I would love to be in more galleries than the one I am currently in, I would love to be doing big shows, and I would love to be able to have a larger platform. I want to be selling originals!”

She went on, “In 10 years, Tempe Regan Nature Artist is going to be in high demand selling originals left and right, winning shows, featured in magazines, and in exhibits nationwide. It always starts with a dream and I believe we can all do what we set our eyes on and dream about if we persevere and surround ourselves with people who support us.”

If she’s not out shooting, hunting, fishing, hiking, or experiencing the great outdoors you’ll likely find Regan in a cozy corner somewhere, lost in an artist trance, gently bringing nature to life right on the paper in front of her.

“I hope my art tells a story of how we need nature and animals and plants and they need us too. We are connected and we have been given the honor of caring for and protecting the earth and all its inhabitants,” Regan compelled.”

You can find Tempe Regan Nature Artist at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.temperegan.com&d=DwIFaQ&c=V6RwJ6H35feIEOPTfw4cSA&r=Fh7XKhdkHZ3rlZq27DCl0lbQcmQRbxu2iQKxZbWIz5Ifb0LjG2GTouSmoFA4BBcd&m=T9tWxOviLbE5dcPNZNciplz8jF4LuQvKo0bRUOAr1UY&s=Ot19uGSf1basEz1ZR4umwu2dSrj6lLuPrdiWJmuicc8&e= and @naturetalkswithtempe on Instagram and Facebook.