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Birds and Light: The Art of Lars Jonsson
 
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Birds and Light: The Art of Lars Jonsson (Hardcover)

by Lars Jonsson (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £40.00
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Price For All Three: £72.93

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 232 pages
  • Publisher: Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd (29 Nov 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0713664053
  • ISBN-13: 978-0713664058
  • Product Dimensions: 31 x 28.8 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 537,670 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

This work describes the life and work of one of the finest bird artists in history. Here, Lars Jonsson talks of a life's work made from studying and capturing the relationship between birds and light. This work is part autobiography and part exploration of technical method, and throughout it is a celebration of birds, wildlife and wild places. It is illustrated with reproduced artwork, including pages from his earliest sketchbooks, examples of his identification plates, through to the development and completion of finished canvases.


About the Author

Lars Jonsson is widely regarded as the best bird artist in the world. His exceptionally accurate and expressive style has been achieved through a combination of talent and countless hours sketching in the field. He is also a much-respected field ornithologist. His books include Birds of Europe and Bird Island both published by Christopher Helm.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Birds and Light: The Art of Lars Jonsson
63% buy the item featured on this page:
Birds and Light: The Art of Lars Jonsson 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£36.50
Lars Jonsson's Birds: Paintings from a Near Horizon
30% buy
Lars Jonsson's Birds: Paintings from a Near Horizon
£25.44
Drawing Birds (RSPB)
7% buy
Drawing Birds (RSPB) 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£10.99

 

Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant production with quirky text, 21 Jan 2003
By A Customer
Fans of Lars Jonsson's art will not be disappointed by this sumptuous translation of the Swedish original. The production values of the paintings are simply stunning.

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.

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