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.


From Booklist
It's hard to overuse superlatives when discussing the paintings of Robert Bateman. Truly one of the great living artists, his skill at depicting wildlife, particularly birds, is legendary. Inspired by nature at an early age, Bateman was later influenced by the work of Andrew Wyeth. Birds is a personal tour of the planet's avian denizens as the artist paints species he has seen in his travels from his home base in Canada to the Southwest, the Everglades, Europe, India, Africa, and the Antarctic. Bateman's skills with brush, pencil, and ink are stunningly displayed here, including both field sketches and finished works. The artist's commentary accompanies each piece, imparting notes about the natural history of each bird as well as comments about how or why he painted it. Bateman's evocative use of negative space highlights the subject, and details such as the species of plant or the type of rock used as a perch define the bird's habitat. Despite its price, this book is a bargain and belongs in every library. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
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.


From the Inside Flap
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.

FROM OUR EDITORS

"I can't conceive of anything being more varied and rich and handsome than the planet Earth," Robert Bateman once told a reporter, "and its crowning beauty is the natural world. I want to soak it up, to understand it as well as I can and to absorb it. And then I'd like to put it together and express it my paintings." In Birds, perhaps his crowning achievement, Bateman presents more than 220 glorious paintings of vibrant and majestic creatures of the air. His sensitive first-person accounts of his far-flung bird walks present word pictures of a fast-vanishing world. Peter Matthiessen provides a poignant foreword.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This beautiful and lavishly illustrated book is an informative and entertaining trip around the world looking at exotic birds. Divided into 12 chapters, it moves from Bateman's home on Salt Spring Island to the north Pacific Coast and Canada's Rocky Mountains, fields and forests, inland waters and prairies to Equatorial areas of Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, the Galapagos and Caribbean to Alaska, South Asia, Europe, Africa and Antarctica. Probably the most influential wildlife painter of the twentieth century, he has outranked in popularity all the giants in the field. Collectors of his art are drawn to his realistically rendered paintings and drawings that capture the exotic bird in its natural habitat.

Bateman's stories are irresistible whether he is coming upon the extremely rare Siberian rubythroat while looking for Siberian cranes in a former duck hunting preserve southeast of Delhi or watching a Secretary bird in Africa attacking its dinner of snake. Bateman's message is always a plea for the preservation of species and the environment, crucial since it is predicted that in the next hundred years we will lose 1200 species of birds, or one in eight.

Given the beauty of Bateman's work, the enormous popularity of bird watching and nature travel, this should be one of the most sought after nature books of the year.

FROM THE CRITICS

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. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal