Description
The gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) is a native North American canine known for its grizzled “salt-and-pepper” coat and reddish-orange neck, belly, and tail. Known as “tree foxes,” they are the only North American canid that climbs trees using sharp, hooked claws, often residing in wooded, brushy, and rocky areas of the Midwest.
Frederick (sometimes spelled Frederic ) Sweney was an illustrator, painter, author and teacher. Born in Pennsylvania, he studied at the Cleveland School of Art. From early in his career, he depicted natural history subjects, winning a prize in an exhibition of bird art at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in 1939. He contributed articles and illustrations to magazines such as Sports Afield, Nature, Outdoors and Outdoors Man and produced the artwork for the Minnesota-based Brown & Bigelow publishing company’s wildlife calendars for 10 years. By 1956 he was a professor at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. Sweney wrote several instructional art books: Technique of Painting and Drawing Wildlife (1959), Painting the American Scene in Watercolor (1964), The Art of Painting Animals: A Beginning Artist’s Guide to the Portrayal of Domestic Animals, Wildlife and Birds (1983) and Cityscape: The Art of Painting the Urban Environment (1985).
Reference:
Gilbert, Dorothy B., ed. Who’s Who in American Art. New York: American Federation of Arts and R.R. Bowker, 1959. p. 558.