The Bird Art of William T. Cooper by Wendy Cooper
William T. Cooper (1934-2015) is one of the great bird artists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. He illustrated some of the most famous bird books of the past fifty years- Parrots of the world, Birds of Paradise and bower-birds, Australian Parrots in two volumes, the monumental six volume Kingfishers and related birds and Pigeons and Doves of Australia. He was the subject of an outstanding biography ‘An eye for Nature’ by Penny Olsen. Bill Cooper also created many stand alone paintings of various species that appealed to him, especially Birds of Paradise, Cockatoos and Hornbills. These paintings were often large with a broad technique for the backgrounds which harks back to Bill’s early days as a landscape and seascape painter. This allowed Bill the freedom to show bird behaviour and detailed habitat, restrictions that sometimes intruded with monograph illustrations. These works and many sketches, mostly unpublished, form the content of this book.
Bill’s paintings were a compilation of sketches, visions and memories drawn from various sources until it looked right. They were never a perfect rendition of a scene as pieces in the landscape were shuffled, deleted or included and the touches of ever-important light and shade added for the greatest effect. Bill lavished the exactness of all necessary detail on his plant and animal subjects. These needed to be precisely captured just like a portrait painter needs to do, where any observer who knows those subjects would instantly see an error. Bill was a romantic and loved to paint nature with all of its beauty and flaws.
In this book, readers will encounter a variety of Australian birds, separated out by their broad habitat, as well as birds from Africa, India and Southeast Asia, New Guinea and the America.
This book measures 28.4cm x 23.3amx 3.48cm and is 349 pages hardcover.
