Synopsis
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.
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.