Intricate murals from a team of international paleoartists help give context to the incredible specimens displayed in the National Museum of Natural History’s “David H. Koch Hall of Fossils - Deep Time.” These artists owe a debt to American painter and naturalist Jay Matternes whose works have long been featured at our museum and in museums and publications that have reached a global audience. Jay’s talents help bring prehistoric creatures and their environments to life in vivid detail and with great accuracy.

Now, Matternes’s contributions to art and science are being celebrated in a new book. Authored by Richard Milner, Jay Matternes: Paleoartist and Wildlife Painter, examines his entire career and features many works never before published.

Celebrate National Fossil Day after hours this year with short talks from both Milner and Matternes, followed by a conversation with Sant Director Kirk Johnson. Copies of Jay Matternes: Paleoartist and Wildlife Painter will be available for purchase and signing after the discussion.

Program begins at 6:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Please enter at the Constitution Ave side of the museum. Registration is free and encouraged; seats are filled at a first come first served basis.

Register here.

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Bios:

Jay Matternes is a renowned paleoartist, wildlife painter and whose work is in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History, and has also appeared in National Geographic, Scientific American, Time-Life Books, and more.

Richard Milner is an anthropologist and historian of science whose include Charles R. Knight: The Artist Who Saw through Time and Darwin's Universe: Evolution from A to Z. An Associate at the American Museum of Natural History, Milner has appeared on the History Channel, Discovery, and NPR, and has been profiled in the New York Times and Time Out New York.