about the artist
This is to introduce Hava Hegenbarth, a self-taught wildlife artist. She works full-time with the U.S. Foreign Service and primarily serves in Africa. Hava is currently stationed in Mauritius as a communications officer with the African bureau. Her spare time she devotes to her first love, her artwork. She is inspired by her African surroundings and in particular, African wildlife. Her love of wildlife is evident in the intricately detailed and realistic portrayals she produces. One feels as though they are able to reach out and touch the animals in her work.
Hava was born in Iowa, and although knew she had a talent for
art; she did not study art beyond the required classes in junior
high and high school. Her major in college was Biology. This is
perhaps evident in her work in that she obviously knows her
subjects. Hava joined the Foreign Service in 1991. Her first
assignment was to Canberra, Australia. While there, Hava first
began to seriously produce wildlife art. Her subjects were
Australian animals and birds. Her work was exhibited at shows,
local galleries and at the U.S. Embassy where she worked. All of
her work there was sold and she has developed a following among
the American Foreign Service community ever since. Although she
loved Australia and all Australian wildlife, Hava's first love
was the great beasts of Africa. After Canberra she was fortunate
to be assigned to an African post. Unfortunately it was to Rwanda
in 1994. She was only assigned there 10 weeks when the infamous
genocide broke out and Hava had to flee for her life.
She was not able to take much with her and all of her work during that period was looted along with all of her household goods. She was shortly thereafter reassigned to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and there found a wildlife goldmine. Tanzania is where she really began to seriously produce high-quality work. She exhibited and sold at a local Dar es Salaam gallery and first started producing prints in Tanzania. Hava also painted a mural of giraffes on the wall of the embassy as a gift to her colleagues. The mural was destroyed in the 1998 terrorist bombing of U.S. Embassy Dar es Salaam. Hava immediately repainted a smaller replacement painting of the giraffes and sent it to the staff of embassy Dar es Salaam as a large get-well card. The painting was framed and hung in the new embassy's entrance hall. Hava is extremely honored that they have done so and considers Dar es Salaam her favorite post.
Hava uses photographs and notes taken while on safari to produce her work. When she was on the road constantly, with the rover job with the Foreign Service, she preferred to use colored pencils. She found it easier to carry and use pencils since they packed well and don't require a lot of maintenance.
Currently Hava is in the United States of America and resides at :
503 8th St S.E.
Mason City, Iowa 50401
Commission requests are welcome.
Hava Supports:
- The Seeing Eye Inc,
- The Diabetes Association,
- The World Wildlife Fund.
Hava's Memberships:
- Society of Animal Artists (associate member),
- Wildlife Artist Association,
- World Wide Nature Artists Group,
- Colored Pencil Society of America.
