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Art for Science's Sake
Hill Ornithology Collection
(Click on image for larger picture.)
Beautiful Birds: Masterpieces from the Hill Ornithology Collection traces the development of ornithological illustration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Divided into sections by technique, and packed with information, this site is also a visual delight. Within this online collection, we see an incredible variety of illustrations.
Represented are two schools of bird art. The "museum school" was most interested in accurately representing the anatomy and detail of a bird's characteristics. The primary concern of the "bird artist school" was adding more lifelike characteristics, natural settings, and sketches of nests, eggs, and young to the detailed picture of the bird itself.
Science for Art's Sake
Plumagery & Feather Art
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On the surface, there seems to be little connection between Arthur Bloch's work in Plumagery: Feather Art and the illustrations we've looked at from the Hill Ornithology Collection. Yet the artists in both rely strongly on a sense of attention to intricate detail. Using the feathers of farm-raised birds, Bloch creates mandala-shaped images in his studio. These are then scanned in and manipulated digitally, creating the heavily patterned images you see here. When not involved in this quirky pursuit, Bloch, author of the Murphy's Law series of books, writes and develops Web sites.
Kit Warren is an artist, freelance designer, and gallery curator for HMS Beagle. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Previously Featured Art