The 2025 Roycroft Little Journey Speaker Series continues Wednesday, June 4 with a presentation on Rosa Bonheur and the animal artists of the 19th century by Friend of RALA and nationally renowned animal artist Constance Payne. Payne will present a journey to the work of Bonheur and her contemporaries in the animal art movement, including Fournier. Bonheur is the considered the most famous female animal of the 19th century and was immortalized by Hubbard with a permanent nameplate The Roycroft Inn.
Beginning in February, the Little Journey speaker series will be presented in two parts within The Roycroft Inn Complex on South Grove. The evening’s program will begin with a relaxed start cocktail hour at 4:30 pm in the Library Bar inside the Roycroft Inn before attendees to the lecture will move to the Roycroft Chapel at 5:45 for the presentation beginning at 6pm. Those who wish to dine following the lecture will receive 10% off of their dinner at The Roycroft Inn that evening beginning at 7:15 p.m. by mentioning Little Journeys when making a reservation.
As a RALA Little Journeys, this presentation is offered at no cost, but requires advance registration. Tickets are needed for entry to The Chapel. Reserve your space by visiting ralaweb.com. Active RALA Patrons and Members who cannot attend in person will have the option to join via member livestream.
Constance Payne holds a BFA, MA, MFA from the University of Wisconsin and as an Associate Professor taught for 28 years as Head of Painting & Drawing in the Fine Art Dept at Buffalo State University. Her oil paintings, drawings and bronzes are conceptualized and crafted in
the tradition of the 19thc Animaliers.
Through research in private libraries, as well as attending workshops whose pedagogy passed along the lessons of the French Academy system, Payne has spent years researching and applying the exact pigments, mediums and process of Rosa Bonheur in order to carry on the 19thc aesthetic that the expression of art evolves from the most objective visual portrayal of the subject, rather than from the self expression of the artist. Her commitment to the 19thc ideals in animal genre, which requires persistence in attaining anatomical knowledge and a dedication to working from living models. Payne has studied anatomy at the Veterinary College of
Medicine at Cornell University and has done extensive research into French masters Barye, Mene, Richard Fath and American Sculptors Proctor and Charles Cary Rumsey, all of whom were trained in the French Atelier system.
Payne attained international public recognition with a one woman exhibition in 2007 at the William Secord Gallery, NY and is locally renowned in Roycroft and Arts & Crafts circles for her work with the restoration of the Fournier murals in the Salon at The Roycroft Inn. Footage of her previous Little Journey, held in collaboration with Grace Meibohm on the topic of Alexis Fournier, can be viewed on the Roycrofters at Large broadcast channel, linked through their website. Payne is represented by Meibohm Fine Arts and returned to East Aurora in 2024, and has founded the Calderon Academy of Animal Art.
“Along with Fournier’s devotion to depicting sheep to express the bucolic and pastoral messages in painting, many other painters and sculptors that used the animal form are ignored in academia and by contemporary critics, erasing a complete and long history in art where genre painting involves the images of animals. These works enjoyed great mass appeal in Europe and throughout the United States. I have studied and employed the training of the "animaliers" in particular the work of Rosa Bonheur and Alfred Munnings, {British 19thc} and am one of the few artists today that continues to work from living animals like the painters of the past,” says Payne.
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RALA’s Little Journeys connects Roycroft Artisans with the community by offering artist talks, demonstrations and lectures in the Masters’ mediums that educate and create opportunities for collectors and members of the Roycroft community to connect with the modern Roycroft artists, and serves as a homage to Elbert Hubbard’s original Little Journeys, small trips to artists of note that shared intimate glimpses behind their process and lives. For years, this series was an important part of RALA’s presence on South Grove, and offered “show and tell” by Masters and Artisans, Artisan Forums and visiting nationally known speakers. After resurrecting this series, in February 2024, RALA is proud to celebrate a new year of “Little Journeys 2.0” in formal sponsorship and collaboration with the series’ birthplace, The Roycroft Inn.
The next Little Journeys will take place on August 6, October 8, and December 2, 2025.
Information on the Roycrofters-at-Large events and membership options can be found online at www.ralaweb.com. Follow the Roycrofters-At Large Association’s social media pages at Facebook and instagram, @roycroftartisans, for updates and information.
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