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It's not all perfect, though. The text suffers from some very quirky and all-too-literal translation from the original, which makes it harder work than it should be. That, combined with the high number of proofing errors, are bad enough to reduce my rating by one star. Jonsson hasn't been very well served by his publisher on this occasion.
The text of the book is a curious mixture of the autobiographical, interviews with the author and the instructive. Any potential artist wishing to emulate Jonsson's style will find some useful pointers, but will equally be depressed at seeing the man's genius from an early age. Is it possible to learn to be this good at painting without having a healthy leg-up from the gene pool?
The text reminds me of The Two Worlds of Andy Wyeth, in that it tried to get into the mind of the artist rather more than many wildlife art books do. With a more sympathetic translation, it could have achieved this aim. But at least it takes art and nature equally seriously rather than complaining too much about the status accorded to natural history subjects by the art world.
Few people, however, will buy this book for the text. Lars Jonsson's reputation is built on his uncanny ability to paint gloriously detailed birds as they really are, without suffering any of the photographic realism that blights so many other technically proficient artists (especially Americans). His birds leap perfectly lit from the page, evoking the atmosphere of his northern lands. There are no hard edges, no unnecessary details and no compromises about the differences between individual birds in the same species. Each and every one is given a personal treatment, rather than suffering the assumptions that "it is in summer plumage so it must have black here".
Jonsson focuses on white water birds - gulls, avocets, etc. Fans of smaller land birds won't be too disappointed, but it is with the pale plumages that Jonsson's fascination for and mastery of light comes to the fore.
If you like Jonsson's artwork, indeed if you like books of wildlife art at all, you really need to add this book to your collection.
Oh - and I'd be very happy to be able to draw as well now as Jonsson could when he was seven!
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