If ever you doubted the power of the Internet to galvanize a worldwide community in fast, almost real time, doubt no more.  Wildlife Art Journal, and its web portal, www.wildlifeartjournal.com, has only been live for three week and already we had heard from artists, collectors and museums in over 35 different countries. 

Incredible. 

To the many subscribers, we say thank you.   Please help us in continuing to spread the word.   We appreciate you blogging us, tweeting us, letting friends know on your Facebook pages and even sending old fashioned email.

We promise not to disappoint, and judging by your enthusiastic emails and telephone calls, you, too, are thrilled with the access that a subscription to wildlifeartjournal.com has given you.  We have readers who came to us from their laptops in coffee bars, computers at home, the office, airports, and one intrepid fellow who viewed us on his cell phone screen from New Zealand.  To make subscribing even easier and hassle free, we soon will be adding Paypal as an option. 

We’re not even a month old and already we have more than 350 images of great paintings, sculpture and photography loaded on the site and much more to come.

Right now, you can read a lengthy profile about the career of Robert Bateman, his current show at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, and his invitation from fine art officials in Russia to exhibit his work at four different venues.  You can get a taste of the sweet new coffee table art book, just out, from Collectors Covey titled Patrons Without Peer: The McCloy Collection and how pieces from the private vault of Curtice and Bob McCloy are now making their way to the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole and to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.  The book reminds us how much we miss the late Bob Kuhn.  Bob, wherever you are, I hope that you are smiling.  You were right in thinking the time would come for an art magazine to thrive online.

You’ll see the entire list of finalists for the 2009 David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation Wildlife Artist of the Year Competition; lists of participants in the 2009 Prix de West Invitational, the Society of Animal Artists' annual Art and the Animal exhibition, and those juried into the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's 2009 Birds In Art show.

Plus, enjoy profiles of artist Tina Close (sister of American actress Glenn Close) and over 75 of her paintings; Black Zimbabwean sculptor Mopho Gonde; Zimbabwean refugee David Langmead now painting from South Africa; engaging essays from Bateman and world-renowned nature cameraman Thomas Mangelsen, the latter writing about the ethical challenges of game farm photography, and much, much more, including our Gallery of the Commons filled to the brim with works by living masters.  

Watch in the coming days for profiles of English legend David Shepherd and a glimpse into the amazing underwater photography of Wayne Levin.  Finally, a special welcome to Willem Smith and our friends at Oog Voor Natuur in the Netherlands.

For now, adios.

EDITOR'S UPDATE: Many of you have sent us images to appear at Gallery of the Commons in July.  We welcome them. For more information on submission, visit Gallery of the Commons under the Table of Contents.