Heather Soos

About the Artist

Inspired by nature, Heather creates original fine art paintings and scratchboards depicting wildlife.  She enjoys working in a realistic and detailed style, while also aiming to create something unique with the medium she is working in.

Heather was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1963.  From a young age she enjoyed drawing animals and learning about them.  Primarily self-taught, she began painting wildlife in her early twenties, after taking art courses at university and through correspondence.  She began painting birds in gouache and later switched to acrylic on hardboard after discovering this was Robert Bateman’s medium of choice.  She quickly became comfortable with acrylic and has worked with it for over 30 years.  Although acrylic paintings form the majority of Heather’s work, she has worked with several other mediums during her many years as an artist including gouache, pencil, pastel, and wood (carving).  In the last few years, Heather has added oil paint and scratchboard to her repertoire and is working on building skills in others.

Heather Soos

Working in scratchboard – an ink-coated clay board – involves using sharp tools to scratch the ink away to reveal the white clay beneath, creating a highly detailed black and white image.  Colour is then added to the image by brushing on coloured inks. 

Heather has also completed artwork featuring subjects other than wildlife. From early on, her art has covered a range of subject matter including portraiture, cartoons, still life, architecture, and two major aviation paintings. One of these, a large acrylic painting of 19 Wing (Comox) Search and Rescue Squadron’s Labrador helicopter and Buffalo aircraft is part of the collection of the Comox Air Force Museum, Comox BC.  The second is an F-18, a gift for her son (a fighter pilot).  These can be viewed in the Collector’s Gallery.  Although these forays were great learning experiences, wildlife continues to be the main focus and inspiration for her work.

Heather has been the recipient of awards and publications (see below).  A highlight in her career was being named ‘National ‘Artist of the Year’ by Ducks Unlimited Canada in 2008. Her painting of three Trumpeter Swans at the Dyke Road estuary in Courtenay, BC, was made into 5000 prints and auctioned across the United States and Canada as part of DUC’s program to raise funds for wetland conservation.

Travelling and living in different locations throughout Canada and abroad with her military husband – also a skilled amateur photographer – gave Heather opportunities for artistic inspiration, discovering new wildlife and natural environments, as well as exhibiting her work internationally.

Heather is a Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists which is based in the United States and has approximately 500 members worldwide, including many of the world’s leading animal sculptors and painters.  Her artwork has been juried into the Society’s annual ‘Art and the Animal’ Exhibition for several consecutive years. To learn more about the Society of Animal Artists or the Exhibition ‘Art and the Animal’, you can go to
Society of Animal Artists.

Stifel Fine Arts Center
Heather Soos

Heather also exhibits in local events in the Comox Valley, where she resides. For the last couple years Heather has participated in ‘Nautical Days’ and in the Central Island Studio Tour (CV Arts).  These and other exhibitions are regularly updated on the Events page.

Heather creates her art in her home studio, in Courtenay, B.C.  She and her husband, Frank, have two grown children.  Among other things, Frank (retired member of the RCAF) photographs Heather’s art, prints canvas giclées and art cards, and created and manages her website.

Please use our Contact Us page if you have any questions about Heather’s art.

Exhibitions

  • Society of Animal Artists Annual Members Exhibition – ‘Art and The Animal’:

63rd Annual Members Exhibition, Stifel Fine Arts Center, Wheeling, West Virginia, Aug 11, 2023 – Oct 28, 2023

62nd Annual Members Exhibition, Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding, California, Sept 24, 2022 – Jan 01, 2023

60th Annual Members Exhibition, Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Oradell, New Jersey, Sept 2 – Dec 15, 2020

59th Annual Members Exhibition (Premiere and Tour), Briscoe Western Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, Sept 19, 2019 – Jan 5, 2020; The Evelyn Burrow Museum, Hanceville, Alabama, Feb 1 – April 15, 2020; Stamford Museum and Nature Center, Stamford, Connecticut, May 22 – Sept 13, 2020

57th Annual Members Exhibition, Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Oradell, New Jersey, Sept 2 – Oct 29, 2017

55th Annual Members Exhibition, Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown, New York, Aug 28 – Oct 25, 2015

54th Annual Members Exhibition, The Wildlife Experience, Parker, Colorado, Aug 23 – Oct 22, 2014

53rd Annual Members Exhibition (Premiere and Tour), The Bennington Center for the Arts, Bennington, Vermont Sept 1 – Oct 31, 2013; Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Oradell, New Jersey, Nov 16 – Dec 29, 2013; Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona, Jan 11 – April 15, 2014; Booth Museum of Western Art, Cartersville, Georgia, May 3 – Sept 7, 2014

52nd Annual Members Exhibition, Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Oradell, New Jersey, Sept 1, 2012 – Jan 31, 2013

51st Annual Members Exhibition (Premiere and Tour), The Dennos Museum Center – Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, Michigan, Sept 17 – Dec 30, 2011; The Wildlife Experience, Parker, Colorado, Nov 19, 201 – Feb 19, 2012; Dunnegan Gallery of Art, Bolivar, Montana, Mar 15 – April 15, 2012; and Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 26 – Sept 3, 2012

50th Annual Members Exhibition (Premiere and Encore), San Diego National History Museum, San Diego, California, Sept 4 – Oct 31, 2010; The Wildlife Experience, Parker, Colorado, Nov 20, 2010 – Feb 21st 2011

  • Society of Animal Artists – Presenting the Animals of North America, Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, Clarksville, Tennessee:

May 03 – Jun 26, 2022

  • Society of Animal Artists – The Kingdom, Midland Center for the Arts, Midland, Michigan:

Nov 26, 2021 – Jan 16, 2022

  • Society of Animal Artists, International Online Exhibitions:

Aug 04 – Dec 31, 2022
Nov 16, 2020 – May 14, 2021

  • Nautical Days, Comox Marina, Comox, BC:

Jul 30 – Aug 01, 2022
Aug 3 – 5, 2019
Aug 4 – 6, 2018
Aug 5 – 7, 2017

  • Central Island Studio Tour, Vancouver Island, BC:

May 24 – 26, 2019
May 26 – 7, 2018

  • Manitoba Art Expo, Assiniboia Downs, Winnipeg, Manitoba:

Oct 26 – 28, 2012
Nov 4 – 7, 2010

  • Wildlife Artists Promotion Days, Bruges, Belgium:

July 12- Aug 23, 2003

  • Wild in de Natuur, t’ Kunshuis van het Oosten, Enschede, The Netherlands:

Nov 2 – 30, 2003
Nov 3 – 24, 2002

Publications

  • Seerey-Lester, John. “Master Critique”. Wildlife Art 19.4 (2000): 88-89. Print
  • Jenks, Lori. “Local Artist Receives National Award”. Comox Valley Echo, 12, 02, 2008, Vol 14, No.12: A1, A8. Print
  • Lemonidou, Eve. International Contemporary Artists Vol VIII. Ed. Olga Antoniadou. New York: ICA Publishing, 2014. 2-3 (frontispiece), 306-307. Print
  • Rooney, E. Ashley, “International”. The Contemporary Art of Nature – Mammals. Ed. Doug Congdon-Martin. Atglen: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2014. 190-191. Print

Awards

  • Society of Animal Artists Merit Award for Best Title for a Work, 63rd Annual Exhibition (Art and the Animal), 2023
  • The Marilyn Newmark Memorial Award for Realistic 2D, Society of Animal Artists, 62nd Annual Exhibition (Art and the Animal), 2022
  • The People’s Choice Award, Comox Valley Estuary Project Watershed – Keeping it Living, 2012
  • National Artist of the Year, Ducks Unlimited Canada, 2008
  • Award of Excellence, Federation of Canadian Artists, Comox Valley Chapter Members Show, 2006

Collections

  • Ducks Unlimited Canada
  • Comox Air Force Museum, British Columbia, Canada