Carl Brenders

Carl Brenders’ insistence on anatomical perfection in his paintings stems from his philosophy that nature, itself, is perfection: “That is why I paint the way I do with so much detail and so much realism — I want to capture that perfection,” he says.

Born near Antwerp, Belgium, Brenders has drawn since childhood. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Antwerp and later at Berchem. He produced wildlife illustrations for a series of books entitled The Secret Life of Animals. The wildlife images of Brenders’ art are first created from pencil sketches; from these sketches his mixed media paintings of watercolor and gouache are completed with a technique he has developed during the last 25 years. His paintings, encompassing every intricacy of nature, devote equal attention to the detail of the wildlife subject and its habitat as well as to the mood created by the light.