Paul Manship

Perhaps best known for Rockefeller Center's "Prometheus," Paul Manship was a prolific 20th-Century American sculptor. These birds are a few of his works on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.







The Smithsonian's description of the Shoebill contains this statement: "By exaggerating certain features or expressions, Manship also lets a little bit of their personalities peek through. This is especially visible in his gilded works, where the gold patina highlights the contours of the animal's forms and their precise surface details. Many of Manship's animal sculptures were originally created as part of his design for the gates of New York's Bronx Zoo."

You'll have to forgive me for quibbling, but the Shoebill is distinctive enough not to need much exaggeration...



Photo from Wikipedia.

Jack Snipe... not?

I'm reading a really fun book right now, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery. Here's a shot of the cover:


The mystery starts when a jack snipe is found dead on the back porch with a stamp in its beak.

Poor bird.

But then, being a person interested in birds, I look at the cover and I think "Wait a minute. That bird silhouette doesn't look very much like any snipe I've ever seen... that looks more like... I don't know... a crow?"

Maybe it is a snipe. The Wilson's Snipe, the North American snipe (and the only one I would recognize in a lineup) has a silhouette that looks something like this:


But the Jack Snipe isn't the Wilson's Snipe. In fact, they're not even closely related. If you look at the silhouette of a crouching Jack Snipe, though, it looks something like this:


So I don't know... maybe it is a Jack Snipe... but it sure looks suspicious...

I don't know, what do you think?

God Horus Protecting King Nectanebo II

My favorite collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art are, without doubt, the Greek and Roman collections, and the Egyptian collection. I like the rest of the collections just fine, but I would be just as happy if the museum were limited to the really old stuff.

One thing that's striking about both collections: the prevalence of birds in ancient culture. If you're wandering around the Met, take a look at some of the Greek red- and black-figure pottery - you'll see what I mean.

But of the ancient birds at the Met, this is my favorite, God Horus Protecting King Nectanebo II (360 - 343 BCE).


The lines on this sculpture are so clean and elegant. Horus's falcon traits are magnificent - he looks so regal.


The sculptor even captured the crossed flight feathers in the back.


Beautiful.

Another amazing image of Horus, this one from the Edfu Temple (taken by Olaf Tausch):

Ravens by Chief Lelooska

Chief Lelooska was an artist devoted to preserving the arts of the Pacific Coast Peoples (among the Pacific Coast tribes are the First Nations of Vancouver, BC, where the Winter Olympics are being held this year). He was a carver and painter.

These images are from one of his folktales about the time before people, when spirits were active and the world was full of magic. These raven images are from the story Young Raven & Old Raven.

The artists of the Pacific Coast tribes used a distinctive style, consisting of form lines (mostly black), ovoid shapes to describe physical features, and few colors (red is most common, followed by blue-green). Chief Lelooska's work is respectful of these traditions, but at the same time he does a wonderful job of making his characters lively.

These images from Spirit of the Cedar People, by Chief Lelooska.

There is a museum in Ariel, Washington devoted to Lelooska. Its website is lelooska.org.

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker by John James Audubon

The last "official" sighting of the Ivory Bill was in 1944, so "the Lord God bird" is either extremely rare or extinct.

That's too bad. Beautiful birds.

John James Audubon, one of the most prolific and skilled bird artists of the 19th century, killed his models (common practice in the day) and posed them using wires (uncommon - most ornithologists stuffed them first). Wild.

Burning Hawk Wine

"On May 29th 2008 the Press Democrat newspaper published an article Burning Hawk Starts Vineyard Fire. At first glance, this was an unusual story about a hawk (species unknown) that was electrocuted, caught fire and in-turn started another blaze at the edge of a vineyard in Windsor, California. But after looking deeper, this innocent hawk’s story opened our eyes to the impact our energy system has on birds and wildlife. Because of the vineyard connection a clear vision emerged – to create the Burning Hawk philanthropic wine brand dedicated to saving other birds from the same peril." ~ Burning Hawk Wine

Burning Hawk web site

Burning Hawk blog

On Twitter

Birds by Melissa S. Cole

Two of the Christmas presents for the house this year were prints by Spokane artist Melissa S. Cole. I first saw her work hanging in our neighborhood bistro and was impressed by her colorful, dimensional paintings.

She often features birds, lots of ravens and herons, in her work. I'd love to buy an original, but my budget is more specific to prints at the moment.

Check out her gallery! (The internet doesn't do her paintings justice.)

Happy New Year!

This is my calendar for 2010... Truth be told, it's one of my calendars. I like calendars and usually start each year with several...

Anyway, I love this one. It's silkscreened on heavy paper and hand tinted. This calendar was created by The Wild Unknown. Here's what they say on their about page:

"The Wild Unknown is a line of handmade objects crafted with care in Brooklyn, New York. Our work is based on the creatures and forms of the natural world, as well as our favorite songs and musicians. Though made in the city, the objects are inspired by summers spent in the Catskill Mountains and on the shores of Lake Superior. We hope your Wild Unknown items bring you moments of solitude and wonder, wherever you are."

Mission accomplished.

The calendar was created as a limited edition of 100, so it's first come, first served.

I found out about the calendar thanks to a link from design*sponge. Neat-o.

Buy a Duck Stamp, Save the Wetlands

Yesterday I read a post by Birdchick's husband, Non-birding Bill, that highlighted the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's duck stamps.

The painting for this year's duck stamp was created by wildlife artist Joshua Spies. They're $15, and serve as a duck-hunting license. But get this: 98 cents of every dollar spent on duck stamps goes to purchase or lease wetland habitat for protection as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Say what you will about the federal government, but this is a good deal for waterfowl, hunters and the rest of us.

For more information about duck stamps, check out the US Fish & Wildlife Service's Federal Duck Stamp Office.


Long-tailed Duck doodled from an image at Wikipedia.

P.S. Speaking of Ducks, Rose Bowl is today, University of Oregon vs. Ohio State. On behalf of my fabulous and talented brother, Go Ducks!

Amazing Christmas Present

Bird, by Andrew Zuckerman.

Incredible photos. Beautiful book. Yay!

Charley Harper (1922-2007)

Joie de vivre... Charley Harper's work has it in spades. Harper was a modernist artist from Cincinnati, known primarily for his stylized versions of wildlife.

Of his own work, he said, "When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe."

These scans are from greeting cards I bought a couple of years ago.

Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher

Western Tanager

Black and White Warbler

Books that feature Charley Harper's work:
Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life
Charley Harper's Birds and Words
Beguiled by the Wild: The Art of Charley Harper

Bird Sketches by William D. Berry

More amazing bird sketches, this time from William D. Berry: 1954 - 1956 Alaskan Field Sketches.

I am amazed at people's ability to capture the spirit of birds on location. I have B to draw from, and she's tough, because even though I've known her for almost her whole life, that cockatoo almost never stops moving (unless she's dozing on a perch).

Enjoy these sketches.

A Sketchbook of Birds

I was wandering through our local used-book store a few weeks ago and stumbled on a treasure: A Sketchbook of Birds, by Charles Tunnicliffe.

Our library has a couple of books of his measured drawings, which are amazing in their own right, but I prefer these sketches. They're really lively.

All images from Charles Tunnicliffe's A Sketchbook of Birds.





Link to the Charles Tunnicliffe Society.

Corvidae Wine Company

Birds are everywhere, both in life and in design. It's a pretty amazing thing to run across stellar examples in everyday life. For instance, I was at the Rocket Market picking up some couscous, and as I was waiting in line to check out I saw some amazing wine labels from the Corvidae Wine Company:




The Corvidae label belongs to the Northwest winemaker Owen Roe (company named after an Irishman), and was inspired by the crows that frequent the winemaker's vineyards in Yakima, WA.

Label images from Avalonwine.com.

Athenian Owl Inspiration

This is the logo for Gesine Confectionary and Gourmet Market in Montpelier, Vermont. (Actually, it closed last Christmas, but only because the owner, Gesine Bullock-Prado, has moved on to bigger and better things.) Ms. Bullock-Prado wrote a terrific memoir called Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman's Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker.

I loved the book, and the recipe for sticky buns...

Her husband is a graphic artist who designed her logo, which, as with most design-y things featuring birds, I adore.

It looked really familiar to me, but I couldn't place it, until I was thumbing through Eyewitness: Eagle & Birds of Prey and saw something similar to this:



(Image of an Athenian Tetradrachm, ca. 480 BC, from The Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection.)

Athenian owls are wonderful and quite distinctive - an excellent inspiration!

(Sign image from Wikipedia.org.)

Spokane Bird Logos

This is the logo for Lone Canary Winery here in Spokane. (For the record, I'm a huge fan of Lone Canary wines, both reds and whites.) It was designed by a local firm, Anderson Mraz Design, and in my humble opinion, it's a stellar design.

The Anderson Mraz Web site says that the logo is a "stylized American goldfinch -- Washington's state bird." So how does it fit the "Lone Canary" brand?

The American goldfinch has a nickname, American canary, because of the "sing-songiness" of his calls. Clever, no?

Here's another local logo, for a delightful store named Atticus (I'd gladly give credit if I knew who designed it!):


It's owned by the same people who own a more eclectic shop two doors down from Atticus named Boo Radley's, and as you can see, the card has a bird on it.

Knowing of the owner's fondness for To Kill a Mockingbird, and seeing that the signage for the store has a bird on it, my first impulse is to think, "how clever is that? It's Atticus Finch!"

Except that the bird isn't a finch. Finches eat seeds, and that bird's beak is too long for a seed eater (unless it's some kind of Hawaiian honeycreeper...).

It took me a while, and some prompting from D, to figure out that this bird must be a mockingbird.


Duh. Now it makes sense.

Mockingbird photo from Wikipedia.

Birds in the NFL: Atlanta Falcons

Another portrait, partly because I suck with a pen, and partly because I find the eyes of birds of prey mesmerizing. They're so intense, in part because of that ridge over their eyes. I love birds of prey, but I don't find them cute. They're fascinating and beautiful, but definitely not cute.

Doodled from Birds of Prey, by Floyd Sholz.

Birds in the NFL: Arizona Cardinals

As you can see, I got his beak a little bit too long, but you get the idea. Doodled from Birds of North America.

There's another cardinal-like bird, called Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatus), that's nicknamed "the Arizona Cardinal," but his mask is red and his head is gray... so not the Cardinalis cardinalis of the Arizona Cardinals logo. I'll do a drawing of this guy soon. I've tried a couple of doodles and I've been unable to get him right.

Birds in the NFL: Philadelphia Eagles

Because I'm not great with a pen (understatement of the century), I made this dude's body too short... so he's going to be a portrait... doodled from Birds of North America.

Bald eagles are no strangers to the Inland Northwest. Apparently they like to hang out not far from here in the winter, and sometimes we see them soaring over the Palouse.

When we went rafting in Nova Scotia last summer, the river was lousy with them, at all stages of life. Several darker juveniles mixed in with their parents. We got the sense that all of them were waiting to see if one (or more) of us were going to fall out of the rafts...

Birds in the NFL: Baltimore Ravens

Doodled from a photo at edupic.net.

Here's a video from PBS of a raven playing in the snow.



Cool, right?

And a great book about ravens: Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds, by Bernd Heinrich.