The Bird Art of William T. Cooper

Wendy Cooper

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Hardback

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English

National Library of Aust.
01 October 2023

Individual artists, art monographs; Mathematics & Sciences; Wildlife: birds & birdwatching

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- William Cooper’s paintings captured birds and their habitats with an exactitude and masterful technique rarely surpassed in avian illustration. This glorious volume is full of the paintings he did for himself (many not published elsewhere) with many sketches showing the way he planned his work. It includes not just Australian birds, but also birds from Asia, New Guinea, Africa and America. A magnificent tribute to Cooper’s work by his botanist wife Wendy, this would make an exquisite gift for any birder, naturalist or art-lover! Lindy

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*Shortlisted, 2024 Queensland Literary Awards, The Courier-MailPeople'sChoiceQueenslandBook of the YearAward
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William T. Cooper is considered a master painter of birds. He painted them for many books, mainly bird monographs. He also created many individual 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. Such paintings allowed freedom to show behaviour or half-covered birds and much more habitat than those for vignettes in monographs. These works and many sketches, mostly unpublished, form the content of this book.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.

By: Wendy Cooper
Imprint: National Library of Aust.
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 284mm, Width: 233mm,
ISBN: 9781922507600
ISBN 10: 1922507601
Pages: 356
Publication Date: 01 October 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active