Birds [Hardcover]

Robert Bateman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2002

Scarlet macaws weave in and out of the rainforest canopy...

The elegant silhouette of a Kori bustard appears ont he African savanna...

Internationally acclaimed wildlife artist and naturalist Robert Bateman has sketched and painted bird life in every corner of the globe. And a lifetime of observing an extraordinary range of species has given him a wealth of knowledge about bird habitats, behavior, and survival skills. Now, in this unique volume, Robert Bateman's newest paintings are combined with his insightful reflections on bird life in splendid pages that will delight nature and art lovers alike.

This personal birding odyssey begins atBateman's easel on an island off Canada's Pacific coast, where herons, kingfishers, and bald eagles pass by his studio windows. From there it proceeds to a variety of North American destinations ranging from a seabird colony on Alaska's Pribil of Islands to the waterways of Florida's Everglades. Bateman has also explored many international wildlife sanctuaries and his unforgetttable experiences there are re-created in evocative color painting and vivid first-person recollections.

Lavishly illustrated and informatively written, Birds is an intimate appreciation of some of the planet's most beautiful and fascinating creatures by an artist who has been capturing them on canvas for over forty years.

Editorial Reviews

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.

From Library Journal

Apparently, these 220 new works by a famed wildlife painter seem so real that readers may fear getting pecked.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; First Edition edition (October 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375421823
• ISBN-13: 978-0375421822
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 10.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #443,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Birds is wonderfully alive, October 19, 2002

By 

"ecobeetle" (Burnaby) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Birds (Hardcover)

Robert Bateman's latest book Birds (foreword by Peter Maththiessen, Pantheon Books, 2002) is a selection of birds he has painted near his home and around the world. For followers of Bateman, this is not a collection of paintings seen in previous books - most of the nearly 200 paintings were painted in the last few years. They include pencil and watercolour wash sketches to full canvas paintings. Characteristic of Bateman's work, the birds in Birds are wonderfully alive. His snow goose bursting from a nest exhibits the explosiveness of the event. A blue crane wading in evening light on a languid pond is exquisitely designed. A foreboding assault by giant petrels on a gentoo penguin is portrayed with all its fury and vigor of the moment. Accompanying each painting is a brief text describing Bateman's experiences and some natural history. This book would make a marvelous addition to anyone interested in nature or art.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice, but disappointing, March 30, 2004

By 

Sabad One - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Birds (Hardcover)

Robert Bateman is one of my favorite wildlife artist, and his first two books are absolutely outstanding. But after that, my sense is that the quality of his work has been going down, while the prices of his paintings (and maybe because of this) have been going up. This book is at the very bottom of his (in my opinion) downward trend. A very few of the paintings you will find in this book are great, but most are unimpressive, and some are outright ugly, clearly done in a rush. You will find very few of those beautiful masterpieces in which the nature surrounding the animal is as important as (sometimes more than) the animal itself. This is an OK book, but it's been a great disappointment, especially because I remember the awe that his previous work inspired me. If you really have to purchase ONE recent book on wildlife art my advice is: buy Jonsson's "Birds and light", which in my opinion is as outstanding as the earlier Bateman (but his style is completely different).

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bateman Soars, February 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Birds (Hardcover)

Robert Bateman's Birds exquisite visual imagery is brought to life by the richness of narratives that evoke the senses. One experiences the subjects from an armchair with almost the authenticity of a field sighting. As a Bateman fan, I continue to be impressed by his extraordinarily gifted and sensitive depictions of our natural world.