Showing all 10 results
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Capturing the Essence: Techniques for Bird Artists
Artist/Author: William T Cooper$67.00 Add to cartIn this stunningly beautiful book, bird artist William T. Cooper explores and demonstrates all aspects of drawing and painting birds. Renowned for his gorgeous and accurate wildlife renderings, Cooper here explains in detail how to create a true impression of a bird’s appearance. The author describes his own experiences among birds in the wild, discusses bird anatomy, and lays out the essential principles of realistic painting. He guides both seasoned artists and enthusiastic beginners through all the techniques and processes involved in depicting birds anywhere in the world. In the first part of the book, Cooper covers materials, bird anatomy, methods of working from captive birds (in zoos, for example), and methods for working in the field. He places special emphasis on the artist’s understanding of the subject and how this knowledge can be transformed into drawings and paintings. The second part of the book deals with watercolors, acrylics, and oil paints, explaining for each medium the step-by-step processes leading from beginning sketches to finished work.
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Vanished and Vanishing Parrots: Profiling Extinct and Endangered Species.
Artist/Author: Forshaw, Joseph and Frank Knight.$150.00 Add to cartParrots are among the most distinctive and beautiful birds in the world. They are also among the most endangered bird groups, threatened by habitat loss through land clearance, the trapping of adults, and the taking of chicks from the nest for the international live-bird trade. Currently, a number of species are in danger of extinction. Vanished and Vanishing Parrots is a comprehensive reference, bringing together information on species that have become extinct or are in danger of becoming extinct. The book is organised into three regional sections: the Australasian Distribution, the Afro-Asian Distribution and the Neotropical Distribution. Each section contains a general introduction discussing the status of parrots in the region, with particular emphasis on threats that caused the extinction of species or are endangering extant species, and conservation measures being implemented or which should be implemented. Within the regional sections, species accounts provide up-to-date information on distribution, status, habitats, movements, calls, habits and breeding behaviour. Each account is accompanied by a magnificent colour plate by renowned artist Frank Knight.
Vanished and Vanishing Parrots will be a valuable reference for scientific, ornithological and avicultural organisations, as well as individual lovers of birds and of illustrated natural history books. -
Remarkable Birds
Artist/Author: Avery, Mark$55.00 Add to cartIn this beautifully presented volume, over 60 birds are introduced, organized thematically into eight sections, covering all aspects of our relationship with birds. ‘Songbirds’ celebrates the greatest bird virtuosi, such as the Nightingale, while ‘Birds of Prey’ include majestic hunters such as the Harpy Eagle, which catches prey as large as monkeys and sloths. ‘Feathered Travellers’ describes astounding journeys made by birds – even some tiny Hummingbirds migrate huge distances. ‘The Love Life of Birds’ can rival any soap opera and involves the most brilliant displays, notably the Birds of Paradise, with their extravagant feathers and dances. ‘Avian Cities’ explores species such as the Flamingo that live in spectacular large colonies. ‘Useful to Us’ examines the ways we find birds of value, such as the Turkey, but also the Canary. ‘Threatened and Extinct’ describes some no longer living and others that are currently on the brink. Birds have also had great mystical significance, both for good and evil, and ‘Revered and Adored’ considers such species as the Sacred Ibis, believed by the ancient Egyptians to represent the god Thoth.
For anyone interested in the natural world and the wonderful variety of birds around us, this beautifully illustrated book is a visual treat that will inspire, inform and delight. -
The Magic of Birds
Artist/Author: Fisher, Celia.$45.00 Add to cartWith their fascinating plumage, behaviour and power of flight, birds have captured people’s imagination since earliest times. In this beautifully and unusually illustrated book, Celia Fisher traces the remarkable breadth of ways in which artists, writers and storytellers have depicted the enduring magic of birds. Used as symbols of freedom and captivity, ill omen and divine message, seasons and the spirit, birds have delighted and haunted people for centuries. From the myths of ancient Egypt to the medieval Islamic ‘conference of the birds’, and featuring exotic species from around the globe as well as humble garden birds, Fisher explores the art, legends and literature of many world traditions. She reveals how the great age of exploration brought spectacular, newly discovered birds to European attention, and showcases stunning paintings from travellers in Asia, Australia and the Americas
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Cover birds.
Artist/Author: Gillmor, Robert.$28.00 Add to cartNow an internationally famous wildlife artist, Robert Gillmor was already a keen bird-watcher at the age of 11 when the Reading Ornithological Club (launched in 1947) invited him to join them as a visitor; at 13 he was elected as their first junior member. He was also learning the art of lino-cutting at Leighton Park School, and the Club’s 1949 annual report bore his linocut of a Canada goose on its first printed cover. Over sixty years on and he is still producing his wonderful representations of birds for the covers, particularly the more interesting sightings of each year. This book is the story of his formative bird-watching and print-making years. Illustrated with the images from the covers themselves, it is a beguiling account of the development of both artist and bird-lover.
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Ghosts of gone birds.
Artist/Author: Aldhous, Chris, Ceri Levy and Jim Martin.$40.00 Add to cartIt is rare that the birding and art worlds come together. It is even rarer that they bring in some of the greatest artists in the world, along with poets, authors such as Margaret Atwood and musicians such as Doves, Gorillaz and Blur. For this project the brief, given to 120 artists, was to produce a piece of work based loosely on one or more extinct birds, with proceeds from sales going to BirdLife International. The results exceeded the curator’s wildest dreams, the exhibition in London was a sensation, with the people involved representing a who’s who of British art, Sir Peter Blake, Ben Newman, Billy Childlish, along with renowned bird artists such as Bruce Pearson and Carry Akroyd. This book features art from the event along with text by the artists themselves. It is glossy, colourful and rich and a fitting testament to the exhibition and to the birds whose demise inspired it.
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Drawing and Painting Birds
Artist/Author: Wootton, Tim.$55.00 Add to cartBirds are much admired, revered and envied. They have featured in art for many thousands of years and our fascination with them continues. They do though pose a challenge to paint and are not always the most cooperative of models. By understanding their anatomy and recognising their type, the artist can learn a shorthand way to capture movement and attitude. With technique and colour mastered, style develops and a special scene can be captured uniquely forever. Explains bird types and how identifying specific similarities can help the artist. Advises on painting in the field, using photographs and working in the studio and describes how to paint plumage and birds in flight. The author demonstrates how to compose a painting with emphasis on the birds’ habitat and gives insights into painting birds from 30 leading artists, as well as illustrations of their work, including John Busby, Robert Bateman and Charles Tuncliffe. Author Tim Wootton has been watching and drawing birds since childhood. He now lives in the Orkney Islands where he works directly from observational drawings in the field, usually painting and completing the piece in the studio. His work has been exhibited across Britain and is held in private collections throughout the world.
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The bird in art.
Artist/Author: Bugler, Caroline.$80.00 Add to cartThere has until now been no proper study of the bird in art, despite our fascination with birds, and despite the wealth of complex meanings associated with them in different cultures. A number of pagan gods are linked with birds, and dynasties and empires have adopted powerful birds as their symbols. Birds feature in numerous creation myths, and represent the human soul in many religions. We can trace bird imagery from the cave paintings of the Palaeolithic era to the present day, and across all world cultures: there are painted, drawn, mosaic, sculpted, embroidered and ceramic birds, and birds as marginal illuminations or the subject of meticulous ornithological studies. This exquisite new book investigates the significance of the bird in 250 beautifully reproduced works of art, both ancient and modern. Nine chapters – on such themes as the mythical bird, the Eastern bird and the domestic bird – explore in detail a rich and rewarding collection of paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures, creating a book that will enchant art lovers and anyone interested in ornithology.
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Extinct boids.
Artist/Author: Steadman, Ralph and Ceri Levy.$65.00 Add to cartWhen Ralph Steadman was asked to produce a piece for a recent exhibition of bird art, Ghosts of Gone Birds, he got slightly carried away – it did, after all, make a nice change from politicians. He allowed his imagination to run wild and, an astonishing 100 paintings later, Ralph’s Extinct Boids was born. These remarkable pieces of art include Steadman’s unique interpretations of well-known birds such as the Great Auk and Dodo, along with less familiar members of the avian firmament – Snail-eating Coua, for example – and a handful of bizarre creations such as the Gob Swallow, the Nasty Tern and Needless Smut, all with a riot of colour and a slice of trademark Steadman humour. The accompanying text, written by film-maker (and Ghosts organiser) Ceri Levy, includes both the story of the birds portrayed and a running commentary on the creation of each piece in this extraordinary work.
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Lines for Birds: Poems and Paintings
Artist/Author: Hill, Barry and John Wolseley.$60.00 Add to cartPainter John Wolseley and poet Barry Hill follow flight paths and habitats of birds, from the Victorian Mallee to the forests of South East Asia, to Japan and the South of France. Sometimes, as the painter says, its almost as if I am looking at the earth with a birds eye view, the birds suggest new ways of telling stories about the earth. This is a dazzling book, a conversation between two venerable artists in love with birds. In a world of endangered nature, they celebrate joy. They write: When a bird arrives in our midst, its presence signifies at least one clear thing: that it is not too late, not yet.
