Birthday Bash Includes Art Exhibit by Thom Ross

Paintings by Seattle-based artist (and Roy Chapman Andrews fan) Thom Ross provided the focus for the Andrews birthday celebration, with an exhibition of Ross’s work hanging in Beloit during the month of January. The “Explore Art” exhibit was a collaborative venture between the Society and the Beloit Fine Arts Incubator, the host of the exhibition. It marked the 121st anniversary of the explorer’s birth.

Ross’s paintings conveyed the breadth of Andrews’s Gobi expeditions and discoveries with a style at times reverent, at times whimsical. His works are based on the historical record of the explorer’s life and adventures.

The artist traveled to Beloit mid-way through the show to attend a birthday-party reception and celebration of the exhibition. The event was held Friday, January 14. Ross returned to the Arts Incubator the following day for a special youth program as part of the Society’s annual celebration of the explorer’s January 26, 1884 birth. The “Explore Art!” exhibit ran through February 28.