The Botanical Art of William T. Cooper

The Botanical Art of William T. Cooper PDF Author: Wendy Cooper
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780642279712
Category : Birds in art
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Book Description
William T. Cooper was one of the world's most esteemed bird painters. In his paintings, birds nibble at plump red berries, they rest on twisted vines and branches covered with lichen, and they clutch forest fruits and leaves in their claws. These botanical details, the backdrops to his bird portraits, are the subject of this lavishly illustrated book written by his botanist wife, Wendy Cooper. For the bird lover, Bill's lush, full-colour paintings, many from private collections, are reproduced here, alongside Wendy's notes and Bill's diary entries about bird feeding habits. Wendy describes seeing King Parrots in the wet sclerophyll forest and rainforest at their home in Bungwahl, New South Wales, feeding on the juicy black berries of the Narrow-leaved Palm Lily (Cordyline stricta). The parrots were extracting the seeds and dropping the flesh. Over the course of a decade, Bill observed activity around an Umbrella Tree in their garden: 'Watched a female coloured riflebird feeding on the flowers of a Schefflera on the driveway. I'm convinced it was taking nectar as they do on the Thunbergia in the garden. It went from open flower to open flower'. For the nature lover, Wendy has included detailed botanical descriptions of each plant and personal notes about where a particular specimen was found. She takes the reader from rainforest to dry country, from swamps and beach forest to the jungles north of Australia. We learn that Maiden's Blush trees are forest giants with wonderful high-arching plank buttresses; that Bill had to shoot down a small stem from high up in the forest canopy to capture a fruit specimen; and that the tree's scientific name, Sloanea australis, honours physician, naturalist and collector Hans Sloane, whose private collection became the founding collection of the British Museum. Alongside Wendy's description is Bill's sketch of a Maiden's Blush buttress and a finished full-colour acrylic painting of Regent Bowerbirds perched on the tree's branches. For the budding illustrator or artist, Cooper's annotated sketches, studies and paintings of plants, as well as many of his finished bird illustrations, give a unique insight into his artistic process. The Botanical Art of William T. Cooper shows the flora of Australia and beyond in all its messy, imperfect glory. Readers will gain a new appreciation of Bill's works. They will see the thick mossy branches and veiny withered leaves of a Sovereignwood tree (Terminalia sericocarpa) even before the black and red Palm Cockatoos in a double-spread oil painting; note the way a bird clutches and nibbles at a large green gumnut on a Marri tree (Corymbia calophylla) in a colour plate of two Red-capped Parrots. This is a beautiful book to dip into and treasure. For those who purchased An Eye for Nature: The Life and Art of William T. Cooper, this will make an equally valuable addition to your library.

An Eye for Nature

An Eye for Nature PDF Author: Penny Olsen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780642278463
Category : Artists
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In the work of artist William T.Cooper, platypuses swim in green underwater worlds, waves throw up blankets of spray, embers glow in the aftermath of a bushfire, a Thylacine emerges from the shadows, sniffing the air. But it is his paintings of birds which set Cooper apart-his raucous cockatoos, colourful parrots, animated turacos and flamboyantly displaying birds of paradise. Often placed in meticulously studied landscapes, these intricate bird portraits reveal Cooper's close observation not only of his subjects' appearance, but their habits, poses and behaviour. In this biography, Penny Olsen traces the path of Cooper's life and art-from his childhood spent in the bush, to his teenage years as an apprentice taxidermist at Carey Bay Zoo and, later, to his work as a window dresser and landscape artist. She documents his fruitful partnership with wife and collaborator Wendy Cooper and his extensive travels in Australia and abroad in pursuit of his subjects.

Capturing the Essence

Capturing the Essence PDF Author: William T Cooper
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 0643103392
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Book Description
Capturing the Essence is a step-by-step personal guide – by one of Australia's greatest living bird artists – to observing, retaining the essential information and then painting birds from field notes and sketches, photographs and other field observations. The author takes the reader through the processes involved in oil painting, watercolour and acrylic techniques, and a piece of art is built up in stages to demonstrate the skills required in each of these media. While the book covers some of the general basics relevant to various kinds of painting of natural history subjects, the concentration is very much on birds. Painting or drawing any subject well, gives great satisfaction. In this book the author hopes to help the reader become competent at drawing and painting birds, or at least to enjoy trying!

Australian Rainforest Fruits

Australian Rainforest Fruits PDF Author: William Cooper
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 064310786X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
This beautifully illustrated field guide covers 504 of the most common fruiting plants found in Australia's eastern rainforests, as well as a few species that are rare in the wild but generally well-known. These spectacular plants can be seen from Cape York to Victoria, with some species also found in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and overseas. Rainforest fruits are often beautifully coloured, and in this guide the species are arranged by colour of ripe fruit, then by size and form. Five broad categories – pink to purple, blue to black, yellow and orange to red, green to brown, and white – allow people with even limited botanical knowledge to identify rainforest fruits. Each species description is accompanied by a leaf drawing, a distribution map, and diagnostic characters to help the reader distinguish similar species. Australian Rainforest Fruits includes stunning artwork by Australia’s leading natural history artist, William T Cooper. It will be sought not just by bushwalkers and natural history enthusiasts, but also by those who admire botanical art at its best.

A Natural History of Australian Parrots

A Natural History of Australian Parrots PDF Author: Joseph M. Forshaw
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780958174220
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Book Description
This book is the final collaboration of Joseph M. Forshaw and William T. Cooper and combines the finest Cooper artwork with an updated, authoritative Forshaw text. Presented as a deluxe edition, this book is truly a combination of art and science presenting many previously unpublished Cooper drawings, sketches and paintings. Containing more than 300 artworks, it is fully cased in grey Ballantine cloth, with black blocking and marbled endpapers. The book is landscape format printed on fine quality satin art paper and the size is 350 mm x 305 mm.

Women of Flowers

Women of Flowers PDF Author: Leonie Norton
Publisher: National Library Australia
ISBN: 0642276838
Category : Botanical artists
Languages : en
Pages : 136

Book Description
Women of Flowers pays tribute to the female colonial artists who drew and painted the indigenous wildflowers and plants of Australia. The publication focuses on the rich holdings of albums, sketchbooks and paintings in the Pictures Collection of the National Library of Australia, as well as works from other major collecting institutions. Each chapter presents a short biography of an artist, followed by a 'portfolio' section of images, in a similar layout to the previous successful title Brush with Birds. Artists include: Marianne Collinson Campbell; Ellis Rowan; Dorothy English Paty; Ida McComish; Louisa Ann Meredith.

The Vision and Passion of William T. Cooper

The Vision and Passion of William T. Cooper PDF Author: Penny Olsen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780646973951
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
This will be an exhibition catalogue for the late William T. Cooper an internationally recognised artist who will be exhibiting at the Tableland Regional Gallery.

Contemporary Botanical Artists

Contemporary Botanical Artists PDF Author: Shirley Sherwood
Publisher: George Weidenfeld & Nicholson
ISBN: 9780297822707
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
Presents a collection of botanical paintings along with descriptions of the artists' techniques and backgrounds.

Collecting Ladies

Collecting Ladies PDF Author: Penny Olsen
Publisher: National Library Australia
ISBN: 0642277532
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
Around 1870, Ferdinand von Mueller, the greatest Australian botanist of the nineteenth century, began to advertise in several newspapers across Australia for 'lady' plant collectors. This was at a time when women typically had little recourse to science, or contact with men outside their circle of friends, making Mueller's network of ladies quite extraordinary. Collecting Ladies profiles 14 of Mueller's coterie of women collectors. Included are Fanny Charsley, Louisa Atkinson, Annie Walker and Ellis Rowan for whom Mueller made time to assist in pursuit of their own passions. He identified the plants they painted and provided letters of introduction to publishers and scientists. Together, these ladies produced some of the most beautiful books and botanical art to come out of Australia in the nineteenth century, covering all the Australian colonies.

Little Book of Banksias

Little Book of Banksias PDF Author:
Publisher: National Library Australia
ISBN: 0642277737
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 50

Book Description
The banksia is quintessentially Australian. Known and loved for its brush-like flowers and sweet honey nectar, the plant embodies both the beauty and harshness of the Australian landscape. Little Books of Banksias features poems and extracts by some of Australia¿s greatest poets, including Dorothy Hewett, Archie Weller and Douglas Stewart. The artists represented in the publication include Marian Ellis Rowan, Marrianne Collinson Campell, Adam Forster and Ebenezer Edward Gostelow.