I was kind of a born naturalist and could draw, and my family realized both of those situations and they geared me towards that,” said wildlife artist John Ruthven, often called “the 20th-century Audubon.”


“I rented one room on Gilbert Avenue, right near downtown, and called it ‘Ruthven Studio,'” he said. “I put a sign in the window, ‘I paint anything and everything.’ That really did it. I wasn’t too self-conscious about it because I really could draw. Someone walked into my studio one day and said, ‘I saw your sign in the window. Do you do cartoons?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m starting a new business. It’s going to be called Play-Doh. I need a Play-Doh boy.’ And I said, ‘I’d love to do that.’ Talk about an opportunity. And so, for 15 years I did most of the Play-Doh company’s artwork.”
In 1960, Ruthven painted the Federal Duck Stamp, and his career took off. He specialized in wildlife paintings, especially birds. “I knew birds very well,” Ruthven said. “From my early association with Audubon and studying wildlife in general, I was never without my binoculars, studying birds.”


Ruthven’s formal relationship with the Great Parks began in 1973 when he dontated an original painting of a chipmunk to the park district for use promoting the successful 1973 park levy campaign. Though Ruthven says he crafted the painting at Woodland Mound, it, fittingly, is displayed at the Sharon Centre in Sharon Woods. Sharon Woods was a favorite park of Ruthven as a child and it remained his favorite county park throughout his life.
Cincinnatians may be most familiar with Ruthven’s mural “Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon” at the corner of Seventh and Vine streets. The original painting was created to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Marth’s death, and the extinction of the species

