Jon Wilde is an accomplished wildlife artist who grew up in Evansville. He started when he was a youth and developed into a painter who is known throughout the State of Wisconsin.

Jon Wilde is the only son of John H. Wilde, the famous surrealist who lived in Evansville and Cooksville while teaching art at UW-Madison. His mother (Helen Ashman) came from a Quaker family. Interestingly, he was not named after his father, but rather an apple, the Jonathan Apple.  His sister Phoebe was named after a species of bird in the flycatcher family.  Their grandfather on their mother’s side had an apple orchard and was a beekeeper.  Jon thinks this fact may have influenced his parents’ choice of their children's names.

Jon was born in Madison and in 1952, his parents moved to Evansville.  He grew up on South First Street. As a young boy, he was given his first art supplies; big sketchbooks that he drew in all the time.  His family didn’t own a TV so he and his friend, Dan Hazlett, would draw cowboys and Indians for entertainment.  Jon kept at it and he shared his father’s interests in bird watching and appreciation of nature.

The outdoors was a big part of Jon’s boyhood.  Every summer his neighbor Rollie Devlin would organize tomato fights in his large garden across the street.  Rollie would invite the neighborhood kids over, draw a line between the two groups, and they would throw ripe tomatoes at each other.  Dean Devlin and his sisters, Dan Hazlett, Dave Erpenbach, Gordy Kazda, and the Asmus girls all joined in the fun.  Rollie hosed everyone down afterward and then sent them all home.  This “clean” small-town fun went on for several years and was a bonding experience for the kids. There wasn’t any Little League yet; the neighborhood kids just organized their own games.

Jon has fond memories of taking swimming lessons from Blackie Meyers in Lake Leota.  After the pool was built in the 1950s, he worked in the basket room, the park store, gave swimming lessons, and was a lifeguard.  He was also a member of the Boy Scouts.  Dave Fellows was his scout leader.

 In High School, his art teacher was Philip Loshek, who had been a student of Jon’s father at UW-Madison.  Mr. Loshek was very supportive and he let Jon sketch or paint whatever struck his fancy.  He primarily painted birds; game birds and waterfowl in particular.  Bob Dammen and Greg Lundey were also in the class.

For those of you who attended Evansville High School decades ago, you surely remember Mr. Kober.  Jon attended Mr. Kober’s biology class and the teacher knew that Jon did bird painting.  One day he asked Jon to do a mural on a cement block wall in his classroom, which was located in the old High School on 4th street: Jon created a 4’ x 8’ painting of a marsh with a flock of geese.  The painting remains there to this day.

After his High School graduation, Jon attended UW Madison. He started out with the idea of becoming a biologist.  But at that time, undergrads were thrown into classes such as Organic Chemistry, Biology, Zoology and Math.  Jon found it to be very difficult and the competition was mostly comprised of future doctors. The memorization was hard as well and he finally decided to change majors.

The next semester his classes consisted of Comparative Literature, Sociology, and elective art classes such as Basic Drawing, Life Drawing, and Painting.  Basic drawing was taught by a Teaching Assistant named Walter Hamady who published books with Jon’s father.  Jon learned shading, lines, and drawing an object without looking at the paper.  He also began to do Life Drawing, which means drawing live models.

He soon decided that he didn’t want to become a zoologist.  He thought about switching to an art major.  However, it was suggested by his father and his painting professor not to study art at school, but rather to take time on his own to paint and see how he felt about it. Also, the focus in art classes at the time was not Representative art, which was Jon’s primary interest. It is also called Realism because it is the type of art that portrays things as they are.  In the end, he did not graduate.  Instead, he went off for a year to paint full-time and never looked back.  He moved into an old farmhouse in the country with some friends who had jobs, so Jon had the place to himself during the day to paint.  At the time, his share of the rent was $13.50/mo. He was doing watercolors of birds at that time, primarily ducks.  

He gradually built up an inventory.  A friend of his Dad’s owned a frame shop in Oshkosh.  He was shown some of Jon’s work and he liked it.  It resulted in Jon’s first show in the exhibition space in the frame shop. He enjoyed seeing the paintings framed and hearing what people thought of his art. The owner fronted him the frames and some other supplies.  The gallery’s clients were primarily duck hunters.  The pieces were listed for sale for $75 - $150, framed watercolors which netted Jon 2/3 of the proceeds.  He was encouraged by the fact that 5 watercolors were sold. The owner, Ken Shields, also helped Jon show his art by introducing him to the local chapter of Ducks Unlimited.  He made an arrangement whereby he would give the chapter a piece of his art each year for them to auction off at their annual banquet.  In return, they let him show his art at the banquets.  The attendees started buying his works and that gave him the boost he needed to make a career as an artist.  At these banquets, he met people from Janesville, Oshkosh, Madison, and Milwaukee who commissioned his paintings.  The proceeds from those pieces were 100% his.

Another important connection he made was through a college buddy who introduced him to Fran and Fred Hamerstrom, two biologists who lived near Plainfield.  They both studied prairie chickens and she also studied birds of prey.  Every summer they had graduate students live with them and they helped with field research: banding, observing behaviors, and food studies. They were art collectors and benefactors as well.  During and shortly after World War II,  European bird artists shipped their paintings to the Hamerstroms, who would in turn sell them and send the money back to the artists. It was their way of helping bird artists and ornithologists.

The Hamerstroms took Jon under their wing.  He spent winters there when the Hamerstroms went to Mexico and Texas.  Although Fran and Fred both came from wealthy Eastern families, they lived very simply, trying to leave a small footprint.  They made a huge influence on Jon with their philosophy.  

The Hamerstroms also introduced Jon to the Prairie Chicken Society which provided another opportunity for Jon to sell his art to members of an organization. The Society was dedicated to creating grassland preserves for prairie chickens. The organization was relatively small, but it was comprised primarily of wealthy people from Milwaukee.  This organization also invited Jon to show his work at their banquet because he was an artist they wanted to support and they liked the fact that he painted waterfowl and game birds.  This was around 1971, and for the ensuing 8-10 years he would bring ten paintings to each annual banquet, knowing in advance that he would probably sell most of them.  One of his sales was to an executive with the investment firm, Smith Barney.  At the banquet the following year, the man told Jon that both of them were in hot water with the man’s wife because he had taken down a painting by Claude Monet from above his fireplace and put Jon’s work in its place!  

Toward the end of the 70s, Jon was still painting watercolors primarily, but also starting to do some oils.  Near the turn of the century, he switched primarily to oils.  The primary reasons were watercolors cost more to frame because of the glass and the matting.  Plus they sold for less money than oils.  In addition, the oils could produce more vibrant colors. 

Bee Wackman, the former President of Brooklyn State Bank, was another of Jon’s big supporters who would buy 1-2 paintings each year.  He gave some of them to his bank directors and State of Wisconsin banking officials.  He also recommended to his friends that they buy some of Jon’s art. 

In the 1980s and 90s, Jon began to work directly with galleries in Milwaukee and Madison.  At this time, Fannie Carver, Susan Broden Gallery, and Grace Chose were the big galleries in Madison.  Susan featured more landscapes that suited Jon’s subject matter.  He had several one-man shows there.  He also had a joint show with his father at the Fannie Garver Gallery.  Jon sold a few pieces at that show, but his father, John Wilde, was the main attraction.  In fact, there was an editorial in the Isthmus about John’s paintings of bird women who were nude.  The article criticized the subject matter as being demeaning to women. Jon didn’t agree at all. 

Jon’s next opportunity came with Edgewood Orchard in Door County, one of the best galleries in Wisconsin.  Another was Abel Contemporary in Paoli, now located in Stoughton.  Since then, Jon has preferred to work primarily with galleries.  In his words, the galleries promote you and sell for you.  Although they take a piece of the sales price as a commission, all Jon has to do is paint.  No more packing and unpacking his art and driving to art shows all over Wisconsin.

Over the years Jon has donated a lot of art for fundraisers.  These help to get his name out and they give him an opportunity to give to causes that he believes in.  

Jon still lives in the farmhouse he moved to after leaving college, although these days he lives there alone.  He has settled into a routine that continues to keep him outdoors where he loves to be: hunting with his dogs, working with falcons, and going to North Dakota in the fall to paint.  Jon says anything that you do a lot, you get better at it.  Jon has become well-known for painting what he loves and has emerged from the shadow of his father to develop his own style of painting.   He seems very comfortable with it.