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More personal reminiscence ("my life with birds") than scientific study
à la Audubon or Roger Tory Peterson,
Birds features the favourite artistic subject of internationally-renowned wildlife artist and naturalist Robert Bateman. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 colour plates--the two-page spread of a Lady Amherst Pheasant trailing its spectacular tail on delicately toned snow is typical--
Birds holds considerable appeal for both serious and armchair ornithologists. Bateman's popularity is firmly rooted in his considerable artistic abilities, and the delicacy with which he renders the birds makes the artist's claim that birdwatching was his first love ring utterly true. No matter how exquisite the detail in the plumage of his Great Blue Heron or Hairy Woodpecker, however, it's the sketches that Bateman provides as visual asides that offer this book's finest moments. For instance, a dignified illustration of a sombre pair of Brown Pelicans is accompanied by a fascinating and playful series of studies, to which the author adds, "I watched this pelican in the Florida Keys waterproof himself by squeezing oil out of a preen gland at the base of his tail, then combing it through his feathers."
Peter Matthiessen (At Play in the Fields of the Lord)--whose The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes was illustrated by Bateman--provides a brief introduction, while the bulk of the book's text is penned by birder and award-winning editor Kathryn Dean. Bateman's first-person voice, however, dominates throughout. --Deirdre Hanna
From Publishers Weekly
World renowned wildlife painter Bateman (Thinking Like a Mountain) describes this book as neither a field guide to birds nor a reference book. Rather it is aptly represented as an artist's "portfolio" and a "field diary." Bateman not only depicts a worldwide range of avian species in startlingly lifelike paintings, he also captures a sense of place and motion (even when the subjects are still) within landscapes that could stand on their own. The artist's uncanny ability is no less displayed in the backgrounds and settings than in the portraits of the birds. Bateman paints a wading African blue crane with both bird and water in near photographic clarity. Likewise, he crafts a muted impressionistic Latin American rain forest, wherein brilliantly colored macaws perch, preen and dangle from the lush trees. Perhaps because of the voluptuousness of the paintings, Dean's text, depicting Bateman's field experiences, leans toward breathless overuse of modifiers, rather than lighter, subtler prose; the brief foreword to the book by Matthiessen (Birds of Heaven) is insightful. Yet the paintings easily carry the accompanying top-heavy copy with no ill effect. This is a wonderful book for birders, wildlife enthusiasts and art lovers.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
