For over forty-five years John Charles Pitcher has expressed his love for birds and the natural world through his sketches and paintings. His success in capturing the sense of a place and likeness of his subjects reveals not only his mastery of technique but also his passion and knowledge as a naturalist. An artist since childhood, he further developed his observational and artistic skills as a young man in Alaska where he studied and painted birds for twelve years; teaching bird identification classes and leading bird tours for the Anchorage Audubon Society. As a guest naturalist on board the famous M.S. Lindblad Explorer John shared his passion for nature and art while voyaging Alaska’s coastal waterways from the southeast to the Aleutian Islands and the Bering Sea. In 1984 he moved his studio into the shadow of Mt. St. Helens, WA. For the next ten years he continued to study birds and painting and as the “artist/naturalist in residence” he taught Nature Journaling to young school students visiting the Cispus Learning Center, Randle, WA.

John eventually settled in the beautiful historic town of Dorset, Vermont with his artist wife Sue Westin, where they maintain their WESTIN-PITCHER Fine Art Studios along the shores of the Dorset Marsh.

John has painted and explored the vastness of Alaska, canoed the wilderness waters of Ontario’s Missinaibi River, the George River in Nunavik, and sketched the migrating caribou herds in the Lake Kamestastin region of northern Labrador but he continues to be amazed and inspired by the diversity and beauty found in his own backyard!

As a Distinguished Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists, he exhibits in museums and fine art galleries both domestic and abroad. John has works in the permanent collections of the Woodson Art Museum, The Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Anchorage Museum, University of Alaska Museum, Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum and the Laumeister Collection and private collections.